goose

all someone's geese are swans someone habitually exaggerates the merits of undistinguished people or things.

☞ The goose is proverbially contrasted with the swan as being the clumsier, less elegant, and less distinguished bird; compare with turn geese into swans below.

cook someone's goose: seecook.

kill the goose that lays the golden egg(s) destroy a reliable and valuable source of income.

☞ One of Aesop's fables tells the tale of a man who owned a miraculous goose that laid eggs of gold. However, he grew dissatisfied with its production of just one egg a day and killed it in the deluded expectation of finding a large quantity of gold inside it. For brevity's sake, the expression is often shortened (presumably by those unaware of its origin) to kill the golden goose.

2012The Age (Melbourne) Fortescue chief executive Neville Power said Australia was at risk of 'killing the goose that lays the golden egg' from Labor's focus on the redistribution of wealth.

turn geese into swans exaggerate the merits of people.

what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander: seesauce.

a wild goose chase: seewild.

wouldn't say boo to a goose: seeboo.