Link Centre Dictionary

goal

UK/ɡəʊl/ US/ɡɒʊɫ/ common

noun

1.

the state of affairs that a plan is intended to achieve and that (when achieved) terminates behavior intended to achieve it

  • “the ends justify the means”
Synonyms
2.

a successful attempt at scoring

  • “the winning goal came with less than a minute left to play”
3.

game equipment consisting of the place toward which players of a game try to advance a ball or puck in order to score points

4.

the place designated as the end (as of a race or journey)

  • “a crowd assembled at the finish”
  • “he was nearly exhuasted as their destination came into view”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English gol (“boundary, limit”), from Old English *gāl (“obstacle, barrier, marker”), from Proto-West Germanic *gailu, from Proto-Germanic *gailō (“crevice, gap”); compare the Old English's derivatives Old English gǣlan (“to hinder, delay”), and hyġegǣls (“hesitating, slow, sluggish”), hyġegǣlsa (“slow one, sluggish one”). Possibly cognate with Lithuanian gãlas (“end”), Latvian gals (“end”), Old Prussian gallan (“death”), Albanian ngalem (“to be limping, lame, paralyzed”), ngel (“to remain, linger, hesitate, get stuck”).

Phrases

  • any hole's a goal
  • away goal
  • basketball goal
  • captain's goal
  • consolation goal
  • distal goal
  • drop goal
  • dropped goal

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.