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Definition 2024


goam

goam

English

Verb

goam (third-person singular simple present goams, present participle goaming, simple past and past participle goamed)

  1. (rare) To see, to recognize, to take notice of.
    • 1866, The United Presbyterian magazine, page 359:
      One of Mr Scott's elders, who came from the west, used to meet Mrs Scott on her way to Jedburgh, when he never goamed her; but when he met her returning in the afternoon he always lifted his hat, and made obeisance.
    • 1884, Charles Stuart, David Blythe: The Gipsy King : a Character Sketch, page 131:
      He never goamed the lassie afterwards, and, in his despair, he began to drink, and drank heavily. He knew his rival by sight, and, knowing the road he would take to reach his home, Scott waylaid and beat him to death on Greenlaw Muir.
    • 1897, Peter Hay Hunter, John Armiger's Revenge, page 21:
      "He never goam'd me," the aggrieved countryman would say with much bitterness.

Related terms

  • gorm (gape, gawk)
  • gaum (understand; comprehend; consider)

Scots

Etymology

From the same Middle English word as gaum and gorm (and goam), which see for more.

Verb

goam (third-person singular present goams, present participle goamin, past goamt, past participle goamt)

  1. To see; to pay attention to.
    • 1836, John Mackay Wilson, Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland:
      The puir creature paid the most marked attention to the young man, scarcely goaming me; but, for a' that, I could see plainly aneugh that she preferred me in her heart.