MEANING
1. To stare with eyes opened wide because of surprise or amazement.
2. Close-fitting eyewear that protects the eyes from water, dust, or other hazards.
Use it for
describing an astonished wide-eyed stare; showing a character momentarily too surprised to speak; giving a reaction a comic or undignified quality; distinguishing amazement from deliberate close scrutinySpecifies an astonished, wide-eyed stare rather than a merely indirect look; keeps protective eyewear distinct. Writing functions: Body language / Startled attention.
Words that belong together
- goggle at someone
- goggle in amazement
- goggle at the sight of
On the page
He goggled at the tiny creature climbing out of the teapot.
For a moment the porter could only goggle at the empty space where the staircase had been.
She lifted her safety goggles and inspected the clean edge of the cut.
Water beaded on his goggles as he surfaced beside the dark hull.
Word forms
- Base
- goggle
- Past tense
- goggled
- Past participle
- goggled
- Present participle
- goggling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- goggle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are goggling
- Present perfect
- have/has goggled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been goggling
- Past
- goggled
- Past continuous
- was/were goggling
- Past perfect
- had goggled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been goggling
- Future
- will goggle
- Future continuous
- will be goggling
- Future perfect
- will have goggled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been goggling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Intransitive verb, often goggle at: goggle; goggles; goggled; goggled; goggling. Future: will goggle. The protective-eyewear noun is normally plural goggles, or a pair of goggles; no separate plural entry is created. Register: informal. Commonness: uncommon as a verb; common in the noun goggles (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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