gosling blast

gosling blast (plural gosling blasts)

1. (UK dialectal, uncommon) A transitory storm; a brief squall of rain or sleet.
   • 1890, John Brown, Literae Laureatae: Or, A Selection from the Poetical Writings in Lincolnshire Language, page 56:

     the clouds begon to gloom and lower, Big drops o' rain fell thick and fast; I sed, sez I, "'twill soön be ower, It's nobbut but a gosling blast."

   • 1970, The Countryman: A Quarterly Review and Miscellany of Rural Life and Progress, page 392:

     A 'gosling blast' might herald an April shower. - A. F.

• Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GOSLIN, GOSLING”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
• 1914, British Medical Journal, page 5:

  ... the sudden squalls of rain or sleet (called gosling-blasts) which are common in April or early May.