/ˈɡuːsbʌmps/
English idiom, everyday. Small bumps on the skin caused by cold, fear or a strong emotion.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Goosebumps
?
Everyday English, fine anywhere. You “get” or “have” goosebumps, and something can “give you goosebumps”: a horror film, a cold wind, a great song. Wikipedia says “goose bumps” is the American form and “goose pimples” the British one, though “goosebumps” as one word is common on both sides.
Also said goose bumps, goose pimples, gooseflesh
Goosebumps
in real sentences
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I got goosebumps.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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I get goose bumps when I see a horror movie.
Tatoeba, sentence by Zifre, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Goosebumps
come from?
English Wiktionary explains the name by the skin of a plucked goose, which is covered in the same small bumps where the feathers were. It gives no date for the first use, and I found no dated source for when the word appeared.
Mistakes learners make with Goosebumps
Translating “goose skin” or “chicken skin” straight from your own language. Both exist in English dictionaries, but people normally say goosebumps, and it’s always plural for the feeling: “I got goosebumps”, not “I got a goosebump”.
Other English idioms like Goosebumps
Spot a mistake in Goosebumps
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.