goad

[gohd] /goʊd/

noun

a stick with a pointed or electrically charged end, for driving cattle, oxen, etc.; prod.

anything that pricks or wounds like such a stick.

something that encourages, urges, or drives; a stimulus.

verb (used with object)

to prick or drive with, or as if with, a goad; prod; incite.

Origin

before 900; Middle English gode, Old English gād; compare Langobardic gaida spearhead

Related forms

goadlike, adjective

ungoaded, adjective

Synonyms

4. spur, push, impel.

Examples from the web for goad

This is what she wants, what she's tried to goad me to all evening.
It does not matter if they were trying to goad you or not.
Let me try to goad him, then, into answering a question for me.
Having nothing to contribute, your stock-in-trade is to try and goad people by making things personal.
Godard said he did not intentionally hit Neil with his stick, but he did concede that he was trying to goad him into a fight.
Is that temptation that doth goad us on.
The goal was to goad the body into producing its own defenses against cancer.
With his long spear he drove the bulls before him as with a goad.
Regulations were the goad at first, but more recently some companies have made environmental performance a competitive tool.
Outside, a worker standing waist-deep in the raceway crowded the fish toward a hydraulic pump, using a broom to goad stragglers.

British Dictionary definitions for goad

goad

/ɡəʊd/

noun

a sharp pointed stick for urging on cattle, etc

anything that acts as a spur or incitement

verb

(transitive) to drive with or as if with a goad; spur; incite

Derived Forms

goadlike, adjective

Word Origin

Old English gād, of Germanic origin, related to Old English gār, Old Norse geirr spear

Word Origin and History for goad

Old English gad "point, spearhead, arrowhead," from Proto-Germanic *gaido (cf. Lombardic gaida "spear"), from PIE *ghei- (cf. Sanskrit hetih "missile, projectile," himsati "he injures;" Avestan zaena- "weapon;" Greek khaios "shepherd's staff;" Old English gar "spear;" Old Irish gae "spear"). Figurative use is since 16c., probably from the Bible.

1570s, from goad (n.); earliest use is figurative. Related: Goaded; goading.

goad in the Bible

(Heb. malmad, only in Judg. 3: 31), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen. Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad. "The goad is a formidable weapon. It is sometimes ten feet long, and has a sharp point. We could now see that the feat of Shamgar was not so very wonderful as some have been accustomed to think." In 1 Sam. 13:21, a different Hebrew word is used, _dorban_, meaning something pointed. The expression (Acts 9:5, omitted in the R.V.), "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks", i.e., against the goad, was proverbial for unavailing resistance to superior power.