GOUGE, a tool of the chisel type with a curved blade, used for scooping a groove or channel in wood, stone, etc. (see Toot.). A similar instrument is used in surgery for operations involving the excision of portions of bone. "Gouge" is also used as the name of a bookbinder's tool, for impressing a curved line on the leather, and for the line so impressed. In mining, a "gouge" is the layer of soft rock or earth sometimes found in each side of a vein of coal or ore, which the miner can scoop out with his pick, and thus attack the vein more easily from the side.