tuning goose

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

The entertainment given in Yorkshire when the corn at harvest was all safely stacked.

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 “tuning goose” mean?

The entertainment given in Yorkshire when the corn at harvest was all safely stacked.

Is “tuning goose” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.