Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GO'PHER, n.

1. The French popular name [Gaufres] of two species of Diplostoma, as is supposed.
2. An animal found in the Mississippi valley and on the Missouri, about the size of a squirrel. They burrow in the earth, throwing up hillocks twelve or eighteen inches high. They are very mischievous in cornfields and gardens. Peck's Gazetteer.

GO'PHER, n. [Heb.]

A species of wood used in the construction of the ark in Noah's day. But whether cypress pine or other wood, is a point not settled.

GOP'PISH, a.

Proud; pettish. [Not in use.] Ray.

GOR'-BEL-LIED, a.

Big-bellied.

GOR'-BEL-LY, n. [In W. gor signifies swelled, extreme, over.]

A prominent belly. [Not in use.]

GOR'-COCK, n.

The moor-cock, red-grouse, or red-game; a fowl of the gallinaceous kind. Dict. Nat. Hist.

GOR'-CROW, n.

The carrion-crow. Johnson.

GORD, n.

An instrument of gaming.

GORD'IAN, a.

Intricate. [See the next word.] Gordian knot, in antiquity, a knot in the leather or harness of Gordius, a king of Phrygia, so very intricate, that there was no finding where it began or ended. An oracle declared that he who should untie this knot should be master of Asia. Alexander, fearing that his inability to untie it should prove an ill augury, cut it asunder with his sword. Hence, in modern language, a Gordian knot is an inextricable difficulty; and to cut the Gordian knot, is to remove a difficulty by bold or unusual measures. Encyc. Lempriere.

GORE, n.¹ [Sax. gor, gore, mud; W. gor; Ir. cear, blood, and red; Gr. ιχωρ; from issuing.]

1. Blood; but generally, thick or clotted blood; blood that after effusion becomes inspissated. Milton.
2. Dirt; mud. [Unusual.] Bp. Fisher.

GORE, n.² [Scot. gore or gair; Ice. geir; D. geer.]

1. A wedge-shaped or triangular piece of cloth sewed into a garment to widen it in any part. Chaucer.
2. A slip or triangular piece of land. Cowel.
3. In heraldry, an abatement denoting a coward. It consists of two arch lines, meeting in an acute angle in the middle of the fees point. Encyc.

GORE, v.t. [W. gyru, to thrust; Gipsy, goro, a dagger. See Heb. כאר. Class Gr, No. 30, 35, 36, 53, 57, &c.]

1. To stab; to pierce; to penetrate with a pointed instrument, as a spear. Dryden.
2. To pierce with the point of a horn. If an ox gore a man or a woman. Ex. xxi.

GOR'ED, pp.

Stabbed; pierced with a pointed instrument.

GORGE, n. [gorj; Fr. gorge; It. gorga, gorgia; Sp. gorja, the throat, and gorga, a whirlpool; gorgear, to warble; G. gurgel, whence gargle; L. gurges.]

1. The throat; the gullet; the canal of the neck by which food passes to the stomach.
2. In architecture, the narrowest part of the Tuscan and Doric capitals, between the astragal, above the shaft of the column, and the annulets. Encyc.
3. In fortification, the entrance of the platform of any work. Encyc.
4. That which is gorged or swallowed, especially by a hawk or other fowl. Shak.

GORGE, v.i.

To feed. Milton.

GORGE, v.t. [gorj.]

1. To swallow; especially, to swallow with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities. Hence,
2. To glut; to fill the throat or stomach; to satiate. The giant gorged with flesh. Addison.

GORG'ED, a.

1. Having a gorge or throat. Shak.
2. In heraldry, bearing a crown or the like about the neck. Encyc.

GORG'ED, pp.

Swallowed; glutted.

GORG'EOUS, a.

Showy; fine; splendid; glittering with gay colors. With gorgeous wings, the marks of sovereign sway. Dryden. A gorgeous robe. Luke xxiii.

GORG'EOUS-LY, adv.

With showy magnificence; splendidly; finely. The prince was gorgeously arrayed.

GORG'EOUS-NESS, n.

Show of dress or ornament; splendor of raiment.

GORG'ET, n. [Fr. gorgette, from gorge.]

1. A piece of armor for defending the throat or neck; a kind of breast-plate like a half-moon; also, a small convex ornament worn by officers on the breast. Encyc. Chalmers.
2. Formerly, a ruff worn by females.
3. In surgery, gorget, or gorgeret, is a cutting instrument used in lithotomy; also, a concave or cannulated conductor, called a blunt gorget. Cyc. Encyc.

GORG'ING, ppr.

Swallowing; eating greedily; glutting.

GORG'ON, a.

Like a gorgon; very ugly or terrific; as, a gorgon face. Dryden.

GORG'ON, n. [Gr.]

1. A fabled monster of terrific aspect, the sight of which turned the beholder to stone. The poets represent the Gorgons as three sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa; but authors are not agreed in the description of them.
2. Any thing very ugly or horrid. Milton.