Goat (?), n. [OE goot, got, gat, AS. gat; akin to D. geit, OHG. geiz, G. geiss, Icel. geit, Sw. get, Dan. ged, Goth. gaits, L. haedus a young goat, kid.] Zool. A hollow-horned ruminant of the genus Capra, of several species and varieties, esp. the domestic goat (C. hircus), which is raised for its milk, flesh, and skin.
⇒ The Cashmere and Angora varieties of the goat have long, silky hair, used in the manufacture of textile fabrics. The wild or bezoar goat (Capra aegagrus), of Asia Minor, noted for the bezoar stones found in its stomach, is supposed to be one of the ancestral species ofthe domestic goat. The Rocky Montain goat (Haplocercus montanus) is more nearly related to the antelopes. See Mazame.
Goat antelope Zool, one of several species of antelopes, which in some respects resemble a goat, having recurved horns, a stout body, large hoofs, and a short, flat tail, as the goral, thar, mazame, and chikara. -- Goat fig Bot., the wild fig. -- Goat house. (a) A place for keeping goats. (b) A brothel. [Obs.] -- Goat moth Zool., any moth of the genus Cossus, esp. the large European species (C. ligniperda), the larva of which burrows in oak and willow trees, and requires three years to mature. It exhales an odor like that of the he-goat. -- Goat weed Bot., a scrophulariaceous plant, of the genus Capraria (C. biflora). -- Goat's bane Bot., a poisonous plant (Aconitum Lucoctonum), bearing pale yellow flowers, introduced from Switzerland into England; wolfsbane. -- Goat's beard Bot., a plant of the genus Tragopogon; -- so named from the long silky beard of the seeds. One species is the salsify or oyster plant. -- Goat's foot Bot., a kind of wood sorrel (Oxalis caprina) growing at the Cape of Good Hope. -- Goat's rue Bot., a leguminous plant (Galega officinalis of Europe, or Tephrosia Virginiana in the United States). -- Goat's thorn Bot., a thorny leguminous plant (Astragalus Tragacanthus), found in the Levant. -- Goat's wheat Bot., the genus Tragopyrum (now referred to Atraphaxis).
© Webster 1913. | 
