1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxi. You yourself are a Goth ... to treat with such disrespect a production which ... will, when finished, be a masterpiece of its kind. 1865. Ouida, Strathmore, ch. ii. For God’s sake don’t suppose me such a Goth that I should fall in love with a dairymaid, Strath! Gotham, subs. (common).—New York City. Gothamite, a New Yorker. [First used by Washington Irving in Salmagundi (1807).] 1852. Jutson, Mysteries of New York. ch. xiii. One of the vilest of all hells in Gotham. 1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 37. The first thing, as a general rule, that a young Gothamite does is to get a horse. Gothic, adj. (old).—See Goth. 1700. Congreve, The Way of the World, iv. 4. Ah, rustic, ruder than Gothic! 1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, ii., 8. Why, with his usual Gothic vivacity, he said I only wanted him to throw off his wig to convert it into a tête for my own wearing. Go-to-meeting Bags (or Clothes, Dress, etc.), subs. phr. (common).—Best clothes. [As worn on Sundays, or holiday occasions.] 1837–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 243 (Ed. 1862). If he hadn’t his go-to-meetin’ dress and looks on this day to the jury, it’s a pity. 1854. Bradley, Verdant Green, Pt. II., p. 5. Besides his black go-to-meeting bags please to observe the peculiarity, etc. 1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, pt. II., ch. v. I want to give you a true picture of what every-day school life was in my time, and not a kid-glove and go-to-meeting-coat picture. 1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago. Looks right well in her go-to-meeting clothes. Gouge, subs. (American).—An imposture; a swindle; a method of cheating. 1845. New York Tribune, 10 Dec. R—— and H—— will probably receive from Mr. Polk’s administration $100,000 more than respectable printers would have done the work for. There is a clean, plain gouge of this sum out of the people’s strong box. Verb. (old).—1. Grose says, ‘To squeeze out a man’s eye with the thumb, a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.’ 1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 49. His eyes having been gouged in a mountain fray. 2. (American).—To defraud. 1845. New York Tribune, 26 Nov. Very well, gentlemen! gouge Mr. Crosby out of the seat, if you think it wholesome to do it. 1874. W. D. Howells, Foregone Conclusions, ch. iii. The man’s a perfect Jew—or a perfect Christian, one ought to say in Venice; we true believers do gouge so much more infamously here. 1885. Bret Harte, A Ship of ’49, ch. i. He’s regularly gouged me in that ’ere horsehair spekilation. Gouger, subs. (American).—A cheat; a swindler. For synonyms, see Rook. Gouging, subs. (American).—Cheating. Goujeers. See Goodyear.