someone's goose is cooked

English

Etymology

Unclear. Unconvincing claims have been made of the term's origin in Aesop's Fables (The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs) and in Swedish history.

Attested as cook someone's goose from 1845.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Phrase

someone's goose is cooked

1. (idiomatic) All hope is gone; there is no possibility of success; the period of good fortune is over.

   If he doesn't win the next round, then his goose is cooked.

   • 1969, Bernard Moitessier, “Cape Horn: The Logical Route”, in Inge Moore, transl., [1967, Cap Horn à la Voile], page 49:

     On our wedding day, a friend said to me sadly:
     'Poor old Bernard, now your goose is cooked. Women are like cats, they like walls...'

   • 2004, Tom Morrisey, Deep Blue‎^[1], page 27:

     "I think that she was so concerned that she was afraid to even mention it in her own journals," Jennifer told him. “In fact, she doesn't bring it up again until it's pretty clear that the South's goose is cooked.”

   • 2001, Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage‎^[2], page 48:

     I thought that Texaco made a pretty good reply, but one of the federal lawyers gave me her take: “When you have to withdraw the evidence on which your expert based his opinion, your goose is cooked.”

Translations

all hope is gone

• Dutch: de rapen zijn gaar, het vet is van de soep
• Finnish: nyt otti ohraleipä
• French: les carottes sont cuites (fr)
• German: erledigt sein, geliefert sein (de), die Messe ist gelesen (de)
• Italian: conciare per le feste
• Polish: nie ma nadziei
• Russian: пиши пропало (ru) (piši propalo) /write that it's lost/, де́ло труба́ (délo trubá) /business is a pipe/, де́ло таба́к (ru) (délo tabák) /business is tobacco/, де́ло швах (délo švax), попал, как кур во щи (popal, kak kur vo šči) /caught like a rooster into shchi/, (его) пе́сенка спета (ru) (pésenka speta) /(his) song is sung/
• Swedish: nu är det kokta fläsket stekt (sv)