gosling
n. countablen. a young goose. It is a baby bird with soft feathers that has not yet grown its adult wings.
n. a young goose in its first year of life, specifically before it has developed adult plumage.
The mother goose led her yellow gosling to the water.
We watched a tiny gosling struggle to climb the muddy bank while its parents honked encouragement from the pond.
The farm was home to several broods of geese, and each fuzzy gosling seemed to follow the leader in a perfectly straight line across the meadow.
From Late Middle English goslyng (“gosling”), alteration (due to Middle English goos (“goose”)) of earlier gesling (“gosling”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse gæsling, géslingr (“gosling”), from gás (“goose”) + -lingr (“-ling”), equivalent to goose + -ling. Cognate with Danish gæsling (“gosling”), Swedish gässling (“gosling”). Compare also Low German gossel, gössel (“gosling”), German Gänslein (“gosling”).