billy goat
3
1.0
- noun
- /ˈbɪli ɡoʊt/
:
macho cabrío
- A mature billy goat can hurt or kill you almost as easily as a cow or horse.
- an old billy goat
Examples
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At the petting zoo, children are excited to see the billy goat with his impressive horns.
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Did I ever tell you about the time I pulled the tooth of a billy goat?
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"It's a billy goat, no question."
Fiction book (1995) -
Early in my career, I heard a radio commercial that advertised a unique solution for keeping your grass trim: buy and keep a billy goat.
Academic text (2010) -
Young mothers are there with little ones who reach out and then shrink back from the hungry tongue of a billy goat.
Fiction book (1991) -
On a Saturday, I drove 75 minutes out into the country to take pictures and interview the enterprising entrepreneur selling billy goats.
Academic text (2010) -
He has hazel eyes and the kind of beard you find on billy goats.
Fiction book (2002) -
As we hiked through the mountains, we spotted a wild billy goat grazing on the rocky slope.
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The farmer proudly showed off his prize billy goat at the county fair.
Synonyms
How Old
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an adult male goat' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'billy' (adult male goat) with 'goat' (the animal); there is no metaphorical or idiomatic shift. This sex/animal naming pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would be expected to understand the MWE.
Etymology
Billy goat comes from using billy, a common pet name for male animals, together with goat. People often called a male goat 'Billy', so the phrase means 'an adult male goat'.