goats

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of goat.

   Goats will strip a hedge bare in an afternoon if you let them.

   The herder counted forty goats back into the pen at dusk.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that serves nearly every sense of the noun: animals in a herd, scapegoats, and, in slang, lecherous men. The meat is the exception. It is uncountable, so a menu offers goat, not goats.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of goat.

   Note

   A present-tense verb that always takes an object, and the object decides the meaning. Someone who goats a hillside lets goats graze on it. Someone who goats a colleague makes that person carry the blame. In the sporting use, a team that goats an opposing blocker isolates that player behind its own blockers so the pack slows down. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, and a following object marks the verb.

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