gander

1 of 2

noun (1)

gan·der ˈgan-dər

Synonyms of gander next

: an adult male goose

: simpleton

gander

2 of 2

noun (2)

plural ganders

informal

: look, glance

take a gander

Those intrigued by such oddities … will surely find Stuart Kelly's "Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read" worth a gander.—

Joe Queenan

… trying to step back for a good gander at the art in the Guggenheim.—

Charles Taylor

… had no choice but to push to the front of the horde and through some glass doors to get a gander at what was going on.—

Rick Barrs

Examples of gander in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Take a gander below to find some bargains on the web right now. —

Ryan Waniata, Ars Technica, 20 Oct. 2023 And make sure to take a gander at the oil paintings that adorn the inn’s walls, done by one of the inn owners, who is also a local artist. —

Lauren Breedlove, Travel + Leisure, 30 Sep. 2023 Tanya Juarez and her friend Troy Medina sat on a bench, taking a gander at the paddle boats shaped not like geese, but like swans. —

Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2023 But back to the goose and the gander. Democrats have countered the tough-on-taxes initiative with their own gotcha measure for the March primary ballot. —

George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2023 Good for the gander AI, however, doesn’t favor one side or the other. —

John Licato, Fortune, 20 Apr. 2023 So what's good for the goose is not good for the gander? —

Dave Quinn, Peoplemag, 7 Dec. 2022 Take a gander at the before and after images of her space below. —

Essence, 20 July 2022 In addition to riverboat tours, visitors can take a gander at railroad magnate Jay Gould’s opulent private car (on display at The Excelsior, Texas’ oldest hotel in continuous operation) and nosh on a banana split at the Jefferson General Store, which dates back to the 1870s. —

Rebecca Treon, Chron, 11 Mar. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gander.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English gandre, gander, going back to Old English gandra, ganra, going back to Germanic *gan-ra- (whence Middle Low German ganre "male goose," Upper German dialect Gander, Ganter), derivative from the base of Germanic *gan-s- "goose" — more at goose entry 1

Noun (2)

probably derivative of gander entry 1, from the goose-like appearance of a person stretching to look at something

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

circa 1914, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of gander was before the 12th century

See more words from the same century