Greenwich goose is a piece of obsolete British slang for a pensioner of the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich — one of the naval veterans housed at the institution. The term is mocking or affectionate depending on context, playing on the idea of these old sailors being kept and fed like geese in an enclosure. Entirely archaic, it belongs to the 18th and 19th century vocabulary of British naval culture and is of historical and linguistic interest only.
The old Greenwich goose settled into his chair by the window and watched the river traffic as he had done every day for years.
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(UK, slang, obsolete) A Greenwich pensioner.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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