Mother Carey's Goose
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
The great black petrel or fulmar of the Pacific. Mother Carey is plucking her goose. It is snowing. Cp. HULDA. Sailors call falling snow Mother Carey's chickens.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Mother Carey's Goose” mean?
The great black petrel or fulmar of the Pacific. Mother Carey is plucking her goose. It is snowing. Cp. HULDA. Sailors call falling snow Mother Carey's chickens.
Is “Mother Carey's Goose” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.