Revised as of
20 Nov 2022
Oooh, that didn’t hurt hardly at all when “the eyes were gauged out”. Every time I go see my ophthalmologist, she’s always measuring my eyes, gauging them. But when the context includes butchered, I tend to think gouged.
You can also gauge a gouge. And it can be depressing if the gouge is deep and in the deck of your boat.
You may also want to look in at “Gage versus Gauge“, which are closer to each other than I’d thought.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Gauge | Gouge |
|---|---|
E Bourdons Patent Compound Gauge by Stub Mandrel is under the Wikimedia Commons. |
V-Gouge was photographed by L.B. Ehrler and is under the CC BY-SA 2.5 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun 1; Verb, transitive 2
Plural for the noun: gauges Third person present verb: gauges Alternative spelling for gage |
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: gorges Third person present verb: gouges |
| Noun: Instrument or device for measuring the magnitude, amount, or contents of something, usually with a visual display Thickness, size, or capacity of something Verb, transitive: Form a judgement or estimate of a situation Measure the dimensions of an object |
Noun: A chisel with a concave blade, used in carpentry, sculpture, and surgery An indentation or groove made by cutting long deep holes in something An act of cutting long deep holes in something Any deep groove or hole that is considered a blemish [US; informal] An act of extortion
[Geology] A layer of decomposed rocks or minerals found along the walls of a vein
[US; in fighting] To push one’s thumb into the eye of Verb, intransitive: [Mining & Quarrying; Australian] To dig for opals Verb, transitive: To dig or force out with or as if with a chisel [Informal] To extort from [Slang] To swindle [Mining & Quarrying; Australian] To dig for minerals, especially opals |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: Do you have a gauge handy? Better check the fuel gauge before you head out. Penny picked out a tool gauge and a micrometer. I never really used my seam gauge. Emigration is perhaps the best gauge of public unease. To judge the quality of a tufted carpet, look at both the number of stitches per inch and the gauge. John prefers nine-gauge wire for this. Guess who got a 12-gauge shotgun for his birthday? Verb, transitive: She was unable to gauge his mood. The toughest part of their work is the futility of using quantitative measurements to gauge performance. Usually she could gauge his moods but this was an extreme situation. Under that model, teachers, students, and schools are gauged by how their test scores measure up. They sat gauging the situation by their mother’s expression. |
Noun: A chisel, two gouges, jewelers’ shears, and the plane blade were made in Sheffield. Look at the gouges in that wall! The book was in good shape except for that gouge in the cover. Verb, intransitive: He was gouging. Verb, transitive: That dog has gouged holes all over the yard again. Oh god, they gouged out his eye. Take those heels off, woman, before you gouge the decks! Jeez, he gouged his leg good. They managed to gouge a small fortune out of my father. I punched him and gouged his face with the diamond ring he had given me. A bomb would gouge a nasty hole in the roadway. He was gouging for ore. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: gaugeable, gauged, multigauge Adverb: gaugeably Noun: gauger Verb, transitive: misgauge, misgauged, misgauging, regauge, regauged, regauging |
Noun: gouger, gouging |
| Phrasal Verb | |
| gouge out | |
| History of the Word: | |
|
Late Middle English from the Old French, which is from the late Latin gubia, gulbia, and perhaps of Celtic origin. Compare with the Old Irish gulba meaning beak and the Welsh gylf meaning beak or pointed instrument. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Gauge versus Gouge
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Apple Dictionary.com
Collins Dictionary: gouge
Dictionary.com: gouge
The Free Dictionary: gouge
Oxford Living Dictionaries: gauge and gouge
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Self-retracting Metal Tape Measure by Evan-Amos is in the public domain and Fault Gouge by Qfl247 is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL license. Both are via Wikimedia Commons.
