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单词 mouth
释义

mouthn.

Brit. /maʊθ/, U.S. /maʊθ/
Forms: Old English mvð (rare), Old English (chiefly Mercian)–early Middle English moð, Old English (chiefly Mercian)–early Middle English mud, Old English–early Middle English muþ, Old English–early Middle English muð, Middle English moȝt, Middle English moþe, Middle English moth, Middle English moueþ, Middle English mough, Middle English moughth, Middle English mouȝþ, Middle English mouht, Middle English mouhþ, Middle English mout, Middle English mouþ, Middle English mouthþ, Middle English movth, Middle English movthe, Middle English moweth, Middle English mowgthe, Middle English mowht, Middle English mowþ, Middle English mowte, Middle English mowþe, Middle English mudh, Middle English muþe, Middle English muth, Middle English muthe, Middle English muz (transmission error), Middle English–1500s mothe, Middle English–1500s mouþe, Middle English–1500s mouthe, Middle English–1600s mowth, Middle English–1600s mowthe, Middle English– mouth, 1500s mought, 1500s mougth, 1500s mowt, 1500s muoth (transmission error); Scottish pre-1700 mothe, pre-1700 motht, pre-1700 moueth, pre-1700 mough, pre-1700 mought, pre-1700 mouthe, pre-1700 moutht, pre-1700 mouythe, pre-1700 movthe, pre-1700 mowthe, pre-1700 mowtht, pre-1700 mowyth, pre-1700 mowythe, pre-1700 moythe, pre-1700 muith, pre-1700 muth, pre-1700 mutht, pre-1700 mwcht, pre-1700 mwth, pre-1700 mwthe, pre-1700 mwtht, pre-1700 1700s mowth, pre-1700 1700s– mouth, pre-1700 1800s muthe, 1800s– mooth; English regional (chiefly northern) 1800s– maith, 1800s– mooth, 1900s– maath; also Irish English 1800s meouth, 1800s moweth; Irish English (northern) 1900s– mooth; Caribbean 1800s– mout, 1900s– mout'. See also mou n.1
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian mūth (later replaced by mund , mond < German regional (Low German) and Dutch), Middle Dutch mont , mond , munt (Dutch mond ; also, with loss of the nasal, Dutch mui depth between two coastal sandbanks through which tidal streams run < *muide ), Old Saxon mūth (Middle Low German munt , mont ; also, with loss of the nasal, in specific senses Middle Low German mūde , mūe , mū , German regional (Low German) mude , moe , moede ), Old High German mund , munt , munth (Middle High German munt , mund , German Mund ), Old Icelandic munnr (earlier in poetry as muðr ; Icelandic munnur ), Old Swedish munder (Swedish mun ), Danish mund , Gothic munþs , ultimately < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin mentum chin, and probably also Early Irish mant gum and Middle Welsh mant mouth, jaw, probably ultimately < an Indo-European base referring to projection, jutting, and threatening: see note s.v. prominent adj.In uses relating to parts of a river (compare sense 7) Old English had the n -stem derivative mūða river mouth (compare Old Frisian mûtha opening of a wound, Old Icelandic munni mouth, opening); the two words merged in Middle English. Compare French bouche (late 12th cent. in this sense). With sense 9b compare German Maul mouth, muzzle of a cannon (1527). With sense 14a compare German Maul mouth of a plane (1741). With to hold one's mouth (see Phrases 1d) compare German den Mund halten . The phrase with one mouth ( Phrases 1b) is described in N.E.D. (1908) as a Hebraism, citing as an example 2 Chronicles 18:12 (after Hebrew peh-'eḥād ); but compare also classical Latin ūnō ōre . In the phrase to make a poor mouth (see Phrases 1k), poor mouth is after Irish béal bocht continual complaint of poverty, or Scottish Gaelic beul-bochd pleading of poverty.
I. Physiological and related senses.
1.
a. The orifice in the head of a human or other vertebrate through which food is ingested and vocal sounds emitted; the cavity immediately behind this, which in humans and most quadrupeds contains the teeth and tongue. †to draw a person's mouth (obsolete) (quot. 1669): to extract a person's tooth.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > [noun] > utterance of vocal sound > means of
lipc1020
mouthOE
the world > health and disease > healing > dentistry > practise dentistry [verb (intransitive)] > extract tooth
to draw a person's mouth1669
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xv. 17 Ne ongyte ge þæt eall þæt on þone muþ gæþ, gæþ on þa wambe.
OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Vitell.) (1984) ii. 42 Wiþ muþes wunde genim wegbrædan leaf & hyre seaw, gnid tosomne, hafa ðonne swiþe lange on þinum muðe.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 3902 Blake fleȝen..fluȝen in mone eȝene, in here muð, in heore neose.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2655 He toc is..And in hise muth so depe he is dede, Hise tunges ende is brent ðor-mide.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 1904 (MED) An oliue branche in moth sco [sc. the dove] broght.
a1450 (?1409) St. Patrick's Purgatory (Royal) 70 (MED) Þe fendes toke þoo wormes..puttyng them into þe moughthes and throtes of þo sowles.
a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) 11428 (MED) Foure large þinges comeþ nest, Mouthe, noseþrilles, cropoun, and breest.
a1540 (c1460) G. Hay tr. Bk. King Alexander 2955 Sche [sc. the whale] haid ane mouth was mare nor any tun.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iv. vii. 8 He was thrust in the mouth with a Speare. View more context for this quotation
1669 S. Pepys Diary 18 May (1976) IX. 556 She being much troubled with the tooth-ake and I stayed till a surgeon of hers come,..who hath formerly drawn her mouth. And he advised her to draw it.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Prunella, the Herb Self-heal, good against a Quinsy, and other Diseases of the Mouth and Jaws.
1769 W. Buchan Domest. Med. ii. 220 When it happens to burst within the lungs, the matter may be discharged by the mouth.
1841 S. Warren Ten Thousand a-Year II. x. 293 The present famous hippodamist at Windsor, by touching a nerve in the mouth of a horse, reduces him to helpless docility.
1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 837/1 The cavity of the mouth forms the commencement of the alimentary canal.
a1878 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage to Land of Burns & Poems (1892) 85 Their mouths were dry as snuff-boxes, and their tongues rattled therein like unto scent beans.
1938 ‘J. Bell’ Port of London Murders ix. 167 She touched up her mouth, curving the cupid's bow well above the natural contour of her upper lip.
1960 J. Hay Sandy Shore xi. 50 A dead goosefish, or angler fish, a grotesque looking animal with an enormous mouth.
1999 J. Poller Reach xxxv. 110 After holding the smoke in her mouth for a moment, she exhales like a bellows.
b. The corresponding orifice in an invertebrate.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > bodies or parts > [noun] > equivalent of the mouth
mouthOE
oscule1835
jaw1870
OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 160 Rostro [apes] decerpunt : ore, mid nebbe uel muþe..ceowaþ uel pluc[ciaþ].
a1450 ( tr. Vegetius De Re Militari (Douce) f. 9v (MED) Þe good bee is knowe by tokenes of kynde, by mouthe, by schynynge colour.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 992 They [sc. Grashoppers] sing not with their mouth..but by the reverberation of a little membrane under the flabells; (so they call those two coverings behinde the hinder thighs cleaving to the belly).
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. The mouth [of the garden-snail] is like a hare's.
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. III. 416 The Mouth, or rather the orifice in which the trophi or organs of manducation are inserted.
1881 E. R. Lankester in Encycl. Brit. XII. 556/2 The mouth is..a simple opening at the termination of a rudimentary manubrium.
1936 F. S. Russell & C. M. Yonge Seas (ed. 2) 206 The sea lemon, Doris, spends its life scraping sponge into its mouth with its broad radula.
1963 G. A. Kerkut Borradaile & Potts's Invertebrata (rev. ed.) viii. 280 The food particles are carried down this tentacular groove towards the mouth.
1984 A. C. Duxbury & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans xv. 487 They [sc. beard worms] have no mouth, no gut, and no anus and absorb their food through their skin.
c. The external form of the human mouth; the lips and surrounding parts of the cheeks.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > [noun]
moutheOE
mouthpiece1738
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [noun]
moutheOE
billa1000
munc1400
mussa1529
mouc1540
gan1567
gob1568
bouche1582
oven1593
taster1596
Pipe Office1609
neba1616
gab1681
gam1724
mouthpiece1738
potato-trap1785
potato-jaw1791
fly-trapc1795
trap1796
mouthie1801
mug1820
gin-trap1824
rattletrap1824
box1830
mouf1836
bread trap1838
puss1844
tater-trap1846
gash1852
kissing trap1854
shop1855
north and south1858
mooey1859
kisser1860
gingerbread-trap1864
bazoo1877
bake1893
tattie-trap1894
yap1900
smush1930
gate1937
cakehole1943
motormouth1976
pie hole1983
geggie1985
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iii. i. 156 Swa þæt he for þy sare ne meahte furðon his hond to muðe gedon.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 82 Cus me leofmon wið þi muð þet is muðene swetest.
c1300 (c1250) Floris & Blauncheflur (Cambr.) (1966) l. 11 He custe hem wiþ softe muþe.
c1387–95 G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. 153 Hir mouth [was] ful smal, and ther to softe and reed.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 8081 Þair muthes wide, þair eien brade, Vn-freli was þair face made!
1457–8 in J. T. Gilbert Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 298 Men with bardys above the mowth.
a1500 (?a1475) Guy of Warwick (Cambr. Ff.2.38) 58 (MED) Hur vysage was of feyre colowre..Feyre mowthe and nose syttynge.
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) iii. vii. 40 Syk eyn had he..syk mowth and face, perfay.
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. 239 With vs the wemen giue their mouth to be kissed, in other places their cheek, in many places their hand.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) ii. iii. 54 Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march. Bard. Farwell Hostesse. View more context for this quotation
1700 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) iii. vi. 266 There can be no Reason given,..why a Visage somewhat longer,..or a wider Mouth could not have consisted..with such a Soul.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 243 A very good Mouth, thin Lips, and his fine Teeth well set.
1797 Encycl. Brit. VI. 112/1 Of Drawing Faces... The middle of the mouth must always be placed upon the perpendicular line.
1820 J. Keats Lamia i, in Lamia & Other Poems 6 She had a woman's mouth with all its pearls complete.
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess vi. 134 And on her mouth A doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moon In a still water.
1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 837/1 The corners of the mouth can be drawn to one side or the other, by the action of various muscles.
1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 19 The face is long and rather narrow, with a pointed chin, a small, thin mouth, high cheekbones, and eyes set well apart.
1981 I. McEwan Comfort of Strangers vi. 70 Her mouth, for example, was no more than the word suggested, a moving, lipped slit beneath her nose.
1999 C. B. Divakaruni Sister of my Heart i. iii. 38 She tried not to see the strained lines at the corners of her husband's mouth as he smiled.
d. An open or gaping mouth as expressive of wonderment, shock, or vacancy of mind.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [noun] > gaping or yawning > action
moutha1275
gape1535
galp1577
a1275 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 49 (MED) He gonet wid is mouþe & staret wid is eyen.
1596 Raigne of Edward III sig. H4 Our men with open mouthes and staring eyes, Looke on each other. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. ii. 196 I saw a Smith..With open mouth swallowing a Taylors newes. View more context for this quotation
1693 J. Dryden tr. Persius Satires i. 7 The nauseous Nobles..With gaping Mouths to these Rehearsals come.
1765 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (Dublin ed.) I. v. 183 The guests, all abashed and confounded at what they saw, sat, some time, with open mouth, and unswallowed victuals.
1815 Sporting Mag. 46 122 Lincolnshire friends..are gaping with mouths wide open to have their curiosity satisfied.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Lancelot & Elaine 1242 in Idylls of King Mouths that gaped, and eyes that ask'd ‘What is it?’
1940 C. Stead Man who loved Children i. 3 The children would sit there staring with mouth open and gulping.
1993 N. Fox Love or Nothing ix. 156 Steve looked across at Ruth who had gone deathly pale and was watching him with her mouth gaping open.
e. Horse Riding. The degree of sensitivity of a horse's mouth and the horse's consequent obedience to the pressure of the bit when being ridden (usually with preceding modifying adjective, as good, bad, hard, etc.). Also: a horse's ability to be guided by the bit.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > temperament > [noun] > well-trained or obedient > readiness to obey bit
mouth1727
bridle wisdom1865
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Light upon the Hand [in Horsemanship] is said of a Horse that has a good tractable Mouth, and does not rest too heavy upon the Bit.
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II. (at cited word) A fine mouth,..A Horse is said to have a fine mouth that stops, if the Horseman does but bend his Body backwards, and raise his Hand, without staying for the Check of the Bridle... A fix'd mouth, a certain mouth..A false mouth..A mouth of a full Appui.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Amble Others attempt it by sudden stoping... But this is apt to spoil a good Mouth and Rein.
1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsemanship xvi. 72 One of my neighbours..tells me he has a horse that has no mouth.
1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports 346/1 The..delicacy of mouth which is so essential to the action of the racehorse.
1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports 347/1 To obtain the desired result of its [sc. the bit's] presence in the mouth, which is called ‘getting a mouth’, and which is merely the giving to the sense of touch in the lips an extra degree of delicacy.
1863 J. S. Le Fanu House by Churchyard (ed. 2) III. 310 In the end his ‘mouth was made’.
1884 E. L. Anderson Mod. Horsemanship i. iv. 11 The beginner should be mounted upon a quiet horse that is light in the mouth.
1910 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 318/2 When the horse is in motion the hands should not be held rigid, as the horse's mouth would thereby become dead.
1990 N. Bartle tr. A. Knopfhart Fund. of Dressage i. vi. 39 This leads many riders to believe that the horse has a hard mouth.
2.
a. The mouth considered as the receptacle of food or with reference to swallowing, eating, the function of taste, etc.
ΚΠ
eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory Pastoral Care (Hatton) (1871) xvi. 105 Ne forbinden ge na ðæm ðyrstendum oxum ðone muð.
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 22 Þa andgitu sint gehatene þus, Uisus, þæt is gesihð, auditus, hlyst, Gustus, swæc on þam muðe, [etc.].
c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 35 Smechunge beoð i muð.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 7028 Þe mossel he dude in to is mouþ.
c1330 (?a1300) Sir Tristrem (1886) l. 1519 (MED) His mouþe opened þai And pelt treacle in þat man.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) Dan. x. 3 Fleshe and wyne entriden not in to my mouth.
?a1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. iii. met. i. 6 Hony is the more swete, if mouthes han first tasted savours that ben wykke.
c1475 Babees Bk. (Harl. 5086) (2002) i. 6 Withe fulle mouthe drynke in no wyse.
1526 Pylgrimage of Perfection (de Worde) f. 5v Whiche had the taste in theyr mouthes of all thynges pleasaunt and delectable.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 468/2 This axes hath brought my mouthe quyte out of taste.
c1563 in H. Maule Reg. de Panmure (1874) I. xxxii He wos wery temperat of his mouthe bot gewin to leicherie.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. i. 205 They said..that dogges must eate That meate was made for mouths . View more context for this quotation
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. iv. iii. 73 Whatever they [sc. puffins] eat in the day, they disgorge a good part of it in the night into the mouths of their Pullen.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 251 And putting a little into his own Mouth, he seem'd to nauseate it.
1743 W. Ellis London & Country Brewer (ed. 2) II. 101 That smooth Gust and pleasant Taste to the Palate, which, after a proper Age in the Malt-liquor, every Drinker enjoys both in Mouth and Body.
1807 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 17 345 He succeeded in getting down, at a single gulp, the small quantity of liquid he had taken into his mouth.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Lancelot & Elaine 771 in Idylls of King This fruit is hung too high For any mouth to gape for save a queen's.
1915 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. vi. 99 He sat with his mouth full of toast and his eyes sparkling with mischief.
1987 R. Harris Summers of Wild Rose iii. 24 She began cramming food greedily into her mouth, talking indistinctly through it.
b. In extended use.In quot. OE the glossator has perhaps misread orci as oris.
ΚΠ
OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 206 Ambronis..orci..faucibus : grædigum muþes ceaflum.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) Num. xxvi. 10 Aȝens þe lord þei rebelledyn, & þe erþe openynge his mouþ deuourede chore.
?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 324 (MED) That mete moste be resceyued in goostly gladnesse and delectacioun wiþ þe mouþ of holy desier, and tastid by loue.
a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 159 Deth followis lyfe with gaipand mowth, Devoring [etc.].
1596 Bp. W. Barlow tr. L. Lavater Three Christian Serm. i. 129 They fal into ye mouths and teeth of biting and deuouring vsurers.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) v. i. 74 That..boy..From the rude seas enrag'd and foamy mouth Did I redeeme. View more context for this quotation
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Worthy Communicant i. ii. 43 Christians are spiritual men; faith is their mouth, and wisdome is their food.
1715 R. South 12 Serm. IV. 162 He who has escaped in many Battles,..by playing too often at the Mouth of Death, has been snapped by it at last.
1801 T. Jefferson 1st Inaug. Addr. 4 Mar. (1984) 494 A wise and frugal Government..shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (1862) III. 823 The root of a plant may be considered as its mouth.
1911 J. Muir My First Summer in Sierra 49 A slight sprinkle of rain—large drops far apart, falling with hearty pat and plash on leaves and stones and into the mouths of the flowers.
1997 Independent on Sunday 18 May (Review Suppl.) 56/4 The cooks..start feeding the hungry oven mouth.
†c. The provision and preparation of food for a monarch. Cf. bouche n.1 1. See also yeoman for the mouth n. at yeoman n. Compounds 3a. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1432 in H. Nicolas Proc. & Ordinances Privy Council (1835) IV. 133 Suche serve aboute þe Kynges persone and for his mouthe.
1450 Rolls of Parl. V. 194/1 John Martyn, Yoman of oure Larder for oure mouth..John Wikes, Yoman of the Selar for the Quens mouth.
a1500 (a1450) in C. Monro Lett. Margaret of Anjou (1863) 97 Squier Thomas Burneby, sewer of our mouth.
a1566 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1571) sig. Fj It was you sir that cryed so lowde, I trow, And bid vs take in Coles for the kinges mouth, euen now.
1578 in J. H. Burton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1878) 1st Ser. II. 689 The cair of the attendance upoun his Hienes mowth and dyet.
a1637 B. Jonson Pans Anniv. 120 in Wks. (1640) III He is yeoman of the mouth to the whole Brotherhood, and is charged to see their gummes bee cleane, and their breath sweet, at a minutes warning.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Yeoman of the Mouth, an Officer belonging to his Majestie's Pantry.
1757 Court & City Reg. 134 King's Privy Kitchen... Yeomen of the Mouth. 60 l. each.
1787 ‘P. Pindar’ Lousiad: Canto II 41 in Lousiad: Canto I (ed. 4) Nat. Gardner, Yeoman of the mouth, declares He'll join the standard of your injur'd cooks.
d. A person viewed as a consumer of food. Cf. Phrases 2c. useless mouth n. [compare French bouche inutile (1743)] now rare a person who does no work but still has to be fed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > [noun] > eater
eatera1000
repaster1517
feeder1550
moutha1553
dieter1577
trencherman1590
assument1657
eatress1834
grubber1838
pecker1862
nosher1917
the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > sloth or laziness > [noun] > lazy person > depending on others for support
parasite1539
useless mouth1722
bot1916
a1553 Certayne Causes Decaye Eng. in Four Supplications (E.E.T.S.) (1871) 97 So many mouthes goith to motton, whiche causeth motton to be deare.
1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iii. v, in Wks. I. 559 Where are all my eaters? my mouthes now? barre vp my dores, you varlets. View more context for this quotation
1638 J. Milton Lycidas in Obsequies 23 in Justa Edouardo King Of other care they little reckoning make, Then how to scramble at the shearers feast,..Blind mouthes!
1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 228 Those who in Case of a Siege, are call'd the useless Mouths.
1745 J. Whaley Coll. Poems & Transl. 121 We're useless Mouths, made but to eat and drink Shunning Life's only good Employ, to think.
1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 496/1 Having thus got rid of the useless mouths [sc. the drones] which consumed, without any advantage to the public, a large portion of their provisions [etc.].
1919 S. Weyman Great House xv. 138 The man had spoken..of rising numbers and falling wages, of over-production, of mouths foodless and unwanted.
1961 Economist 30 Dec. 1293/2 More than two thousand ‘useless-mouth’ refugees, whom the communists have allowed to cross legally into the little colony.
1990 J. Sheppard in G. Tansey & J. D'Silva Meat Business xiv. 155 The proponents imply that genetic solutions will put food into hungry mouths and redress ecological degradation.
3.
a. The mouth considered as the instrument of speech or the voice. Now chiefly in phrases: see Phrases 1.Many examples occur in earlier English versions of the Bible, in passages literally rendered from Hebrew or Hebraistic Greek.In earlier use, esp. in Middle English, mouth in this sense often carried connotations of insincerity, a contrast being drawn between word and deed, or between outward speech and inner feelings, truth, or understanding.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > speech organs > types of speech organ > [noun] > mouth
mouthOE
clap-dish1614
clapper1938
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxvi. 389 Hi habbað dumbne muð & blinde eagan.
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 22 Se singð mid gaste, se ðe clypað þa word mid muðe, and ne understænt þæs andgites getacnunge.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 5092 Þa spec þe moder milde mid muðe.
c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 234 (MED) A wis word, þeȝ hit bo unclene, Is fele manne a muþe imene.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 1030 (MED) Þe toun me clupeþ ludestoun, þat is wide couþ, & now me clupeþ it londone, þat is liȝtore in þe mouþ.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) : Prov. (Bodl. 959) xiii. 3 Who kepeth his mouþ kepeth his soule.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 2639 (MED) Who-so with hys mouþe one seys, And with hys herte þenkeþ ouþer weys, he ys wurþy to be shent.
a1450 (?a1390) J. Mirk Instr. Parish Priests (Claud.) (1974) 27 (MED) Of honde & mowþe þou moste be trewe.
c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) iv. 63 (MED) Somme mafflid with þe mouþ and nyst what þey ment.
1533 J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen Richt Vay sig. Miiv Quhen men mwuis the mwtht and the lippis and the tunge wtuertlie without ye hart and mind.
a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 53/1 Neuer can there be thinge..amisse..but it should be in mine eares ere it were well oute of their mouthes.
a1557 J. Cheke tr. Gospel St. Matthew (1843) xv. 18 Thoos thinges yt commeth forth of ye mougth commeth forth of ye hart, aud yei defile a man.
1611 Bible (King James) Matt. xxi. 16 Haue yee neuer read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 220 You must borrow me Gargantuas mouth first: 'tis a Word too great for any mouth of this Ages size. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) iv. ii. 81 Thy words I grant are bigger: for I weare not My Dagger in my mouth . View more context for this quotation
1711 tr. S. Werenfels Disc. Meteors Stile in tr. S. Werenfels Disc. Logomachys 218 Admirable Words to fill the Mouth, and make a graceful Rumble.
1794 T. Dwight Greenfield Hill i. 18 The rare-seen felon startles every mind And fills each mouth with news.
1822 W. Hazlitt Table-talk (1869) 2nd Ser. i. 5 Spouting out torrents of puddled politics from his mouth.
1881 Nature 24 Feb. 387/1 First..was the Sparrow, the most impudent proletariat—I had almost said Social democrat, because the whole world today has that bad word in the mouth.
1951 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry Feb. 595/1 A powerful tyrant synthetically injects his own thoughts and words into the minds and mouths of the victims he plans to destroy by mock trial.
1995 Guardian 22 July 24/7 Those who marvelled at the phenomenal climbing feats..found words such as ‘heroic’ and ‘Herculean’ turn to ashes in their mouths.
b. Used as the subject of a verb of speaking. Also used rhetorically of the person speaking.Frequently in translations of or with allusion to Matthew 12:34.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > one who speaks > [noun]
mathelereOE
mouthOE
speaker1303
sayer1340
outera1415
utterer1509
handler1534
trumpet1549
discourser1564
deliverer1580
linguist1612
vocalist1613
sermocinator1623
sermocinatrix1623
articulator1651
worder1654
voice1667
stringer1774
tonguer1822
vocalizer1830
locutor1858
outspeaker1858
speaker-hearer1965
speaker-listener1965
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xii. 34 Soþlice of þære heortan willan se muþ spicþ.
c1275 Kentish Serm. in J. Hall Select. Early Middle Eng. (1920) I. 217 (MED) Godes oghe mudh hit seid.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Matt. vii. 34 The mouth spekith of the grete plente [v.r. habundaunce; L. abundantia] of the herte.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 904 As Alexander awyn mouth had þam all enfourmed.
1474 W. Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse (1883) iii. iii. 104 Saynt Bernard..sayth, That the mouthe that lyeth destroyeth the sowle.
1508 W. Dunbar Goldyn Targe (Chepman & Myllar) in Poems (1998) I. 192 O morall Gower and Ludgate laureate,..Your angel mouthis most mellifluate Oure rude langage has clere illumynate.
1581 J. Hamilton Catholik Traictise in T. G. Law Catholic Tractates (1901) 84 Thair mouth speiks proudnes.
1611 Bible (King James) Matt. xii. 34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. View more context for this quotation
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. vi. §1 His own mouth told him he was a lying Prophet.
1713 J. Addison Cato ii. ii You don't now thunder in the capitol, With all the mouths of Rome to second you.
1792 M. Wollstonecraft Vindic. Rights Woman ii. 54 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and a wiser than Solomon hath said, that the heart should be made clean.
1864 Ld. Tennyson Sea Dreams 14 He cursed..that one unctuous mouth which lured him, rogue, To buy strange shares in some Peruvian mine.
1881 A. Trollope Dr. Wortle's School II. xi. 211 To have held her tongue would have been..impossible to her. Out of the full heart the mouth speaks, and her heart was very full.
1905 E. Nesbit Rainbow & Rose iv. 51 (title of poem) Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh.
1954 D. Gascoyne in Botteghe Oscure 13 120 All things fall out and drop down, fall away If no sincere mouth speaks To recreate the world.
1991 L. Appignanesi Memory & Desire (1992) (BNC) 365 Was her mind wandering? That was what his eyes asked, while his mouth spoke hollow questions.
c. In extended use.
ΚΠ
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Exod. (Claud.) iv. 16 He spricþ for ðe to þam folce & bið þin muþ.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 11715 Godess þeowwess..sinndenn nemmnedd godess muþ. Forr þatt teȝȝ godess lare..Till godess leode spellenn.
c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme lxxxiii. 16 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 120 Stopp we their verie name within the mouth of fame.
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. iii. 38 The mid-night bell Did with his yron tongue, and brazen mouth Sound on. View more context for this quotation
a1628 J. Preston New Covenant (1634) 440 Where the Scripture hath a mouth to speake, Faith hath an eare to heare.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 967 And Discord with a thousand various mouths . View more context for this quotation
1731 E. Thomas Pylades & Corinna I. 159 That noble Pile, which swells the Mouth of Fame, Derives its Honour from great Duncombe's Name.
1740 S. Richardson Pamela II. 159 He..said the most generous and affecting Things that ever dropt from the Honey-flowing Mouth of Love!
a1811 J. Leyden Poet. Remains (1819) 157 The vollied thunder spoke From a thousand smouldering mouths of lurid flame.
1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xxxviii. 409 These things put arguments into the mouth of infidelity.
1955 R. S. Thomas Song at Year's Turning 52 The hole under the door Was a mouth through which the rough wind spoke.
1996 J. T. Hospital Oyster (1997) 32 Living Worders who believe that a satellite dish is the mouth of Satan, and television is his voice in your home.
d. Speech, words; way of speaking. In early use also in plural in same sense. Now rare (chiefly regional) except in phrases: see Phrases 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > [noun] > that which is or can be spoken
speechc897
saw9..
speech971
wordOE
quideOE
wordsOE
wordOE
thingOE
rouna1225
mouthc1225
queatha1250
breathc1300
reasonc1300
speakingsa1325
swarec1325
saying1340
voicec1350
lorea1375
sermonc1385
carpc1400
gear1415
utterancec1454
parol1474
ditty1483
say1571
said1578
dictumc1586
palabra1600
breathing1606
bringinga1616
elocution?1637
rumblea1680
elocutive1821
vocability1841
deliverance1845
deliverment1850
deliverancy1853
verbalization1858
voicing1888
sayable1937
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (1973) 313 (MED) Þi leor is, meiden, lufsum, & ti muð murie.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 5726 Mid muðen heo seiden, mid aðen heo hit sworen.
?a1300 Thrush & Nightingale (Digby) 94 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 104 (MED) Fowel, for þi false mouþ, Þi sawe shal ben wide couþ.
c1390 Pistel of Swete Susan (Vernon) 253 For I am dampned, I ne dar disparage þi mouþ.
c1400 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr. R.3.14) (1960) A. iv. 105 (MED) Rede me not..reuþe to haue..Til Clerkis & kniȝtes ben curteis of here mouþes.
c1450 J. Lydgate Dietary (Sloane) 25 in Anglia (1918) 42 185 Haue in hatë mowthes [v.r. wordes] þat ben doubull.
c1450 (a1400) Libeaus Desconus (Calig. A.ii) (1969) 141 (MED) He was..A mery man of mouþe.
1583 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Deuteronomie vi. 33 Wherby we see that they flatly resist Gods mouth.
1702 Lex Vera 1 They unanimously barricado'd their Ears against the Mouth of the Prophet.
1948 J. G. Johnston Come fish with Me 115 A man cam' oot wi' a mooth an' a mainner I didna like, but a' keepit a quate sough.
e. The bark of a hound or other dog.Chiefly in to give mouth: to bark or bay vehemently, to give tongue (occasionally in extended use of a person). Also †to spend one's mouth (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [noun] > sound made by
questc1400
gale1460
cry1535
mouth1590
tongue1787
the mind > language > speech > speak [verb (intransitive)]
matheleOE
speakc888
spellc888
yedc888
i-quethec900
reirdOE
meldOE
meleOE
quidOE
i-meleOE
wordOE
to open one's mouth (also lips)OE
mootOE
spellc1175
carpa1240
spilec1275
bespeakc1314
adda1382
mella1400
moutha1400
utter?a1400
lalec1400
nurnc1400
parlec1400
talkc1400
to say forthc1405
rekea1450
to say on1487
nevena1500
quinch1511
quetch1530
queckc1540
walk1550
cant1567
twang1602
articulate1615
tella1616
betalk1622
sermocinate1623
to give tongue1737
jaw1748
to break stillness1768
outspeaka1788
to give mouth1854
larum1877
to make noises1909
verbal1974
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [verb (intransitive)] > make sound
openc1425
cry1486
yearn1523
chant1573
babble1575
to lead chawle1589
to spend the mouth1590
spend1602
to give tongue1737
to throw (its) tongue1742
speak1826
tongue1832
to give mouth1854
1590 T. Cokayne Treat. Hunting Dijb At which time the houndes will spend their mouthes verie lustely.
1590 T. Cokayne Treat. Hunting Dijb They will so double their mouthes and teare them together, that you would thinke there were more houndes in companie than your owne.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iv. i. 122 My hounds are..matcht in mouth like bels. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) ii. iv. 12 Between two Dogs, which hath the deeper mouth . View more context for this quotation
1648 C. Walker Relations & Observ. ii. 134 The Beagles of the faction spent their mouths freely against the said Commissioners again.
1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Meleager & Atalanta in Fables 109 The Boar..Deals glancing Wounds; the fearful Dogs divide: All spend their Mouth aloof, but none abide.
1793 H. Boyd Royal Message iii. i, in Poems 376 Those rash and fiery volunteers That spend their mouths and bark at royalty.
1854 N. Wiseman Fabiola i. vi Calpurnius, thus challenged,..solemnly gave mouth: ‘The Christians’, said he, ‘are a foreign sect’ [etc.].
1859 Ld. Tennyson Enid in Idylls of King 10 They listen'd..for the baying of Cavall, King Arthur's hound of deepest mouth.
a1872 B. Harte Goddess 28 The watch-dog on the distant shore Gives mouth.
1907 J. J. McDonald Life in Old Virginia xx. 286 When the scent is struck, the dogs ‘give mouth’, and the hunter listens.
1972 National Observer (U.S.) 27 May 14/6 To a coon hunter who knows hounds, this is the ultimate test. A man learns his dogs' ‘mouths’, or voices, as a mother learns her baby's cry.
1984 R. Wilder You All spoken Here 58 Pretty mouth, sweet mouth, what a dog in good voice has when he opens, or bays, or begins to mouth on a hunt.
f. colloquial. Extravagant, insolent, or boastful talk; a propensity for this. Cf. to be all mouth at Phrases 1m, and lip n. 3c.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [noun]
hardiessec1300
boldness1377
malapertness?a1439
over-boldnessc1450
insolencya1513
protervitya1527
impudency1529
sauce malapert1529
petulancy1537
procacitya1538
audacity1545
sauceliness1552
forehead1564
hardihead1579
hardihood1594
outfacing1598
audaciousness1599
impudentness1599
petulancea1600
impertinency1609
impertinence1612
impudencea1616
procacya1620
affrontedness1640
brow1642
front1653
insolence1668
affrontery1679
assurance1699
effrontery1715
affrontiveness1721
swagger1725
imperence1765
cheek1823
sassiness1834
cheekiness1838
pawk1855
gall1882
chutzpah1886
face1890
mouth1891
crust1900
rind1901
smarting1902
hide1916
brass neck1937
the mind > emotion > pride > boasting or boastfulness > [noun]
yelpc888
yelpinga1050
roosingc1175
boastc1300
avauntment1303
avauntry1330
vauntingc1340
bragc1360
avauntingc1380
boastingc1380
avauntance1393
angarda1400
bragging1399
vaunta1400
crackingc1440
crackc1450
crowing1484
jactancea1492
vaunterya1492
bragancea1500
gloriation?1504
blasta1513
vousting1535
braggery?1571
jactation1576
self-boasting1577
thrasonism1596
braggartry1598
braggartism1601
jactancy1623
braggadocianism1624
blazing1628
jactitation1632
word-braving1642
rodomontadea1648
fanfaronade1652
superbiloquence1656
vapouring1656
rodomontading1661
blow1684
goster1703
gasconade1709
gasconading1709
vauntingness1727
braggadocioa1734
Gasconism1744
Gascoigny1754
braggade1763
gostering1763
penny trumpet1783
cockalorum?a1792
boastfulness1810
vauntage1818
bull-flesh1820
blowing1840
vauntiness1851
kompology1854
loud-mouthing1858
skite1860
gabbing1869
mouth1891
buck1895
skiting1916
boosterism1926
the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > [noun] > speech
sauce malapert1529
petulancea1652
jaw1748
snash1786
slack-jaw1797
slang1805
gob1807
lip1821
cheek1825
slack1825
sass1841
back-talk1858
back sass1883
mouth1891
slack lip1899
back-chat1901
chin1902
slop1952
the mind > emotion > pride > boasting or boastfulness > [noun] > a boast > boastful talk
hot air1873
mouth1891
1891 J. S. Farmer Slang II. 83/1 Cheek,..Equivalents are lip,..mouth, chin, chirrup, and nine shillings.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §351/2 Impudent talk,..mouth.
1970 G. F. Newman Sir, you Bastard ii. 75 The youth..for all his mouth and supposed cleverness was easily tricked.
1973 Time Out 2 Mar. 13/2 Even then, it was all mouth, to be truthful.
1986 City Limits 12 June 10 You're mouth man. All mouth.
4. In extended use: a person who speaks.
a. A person who speaks on behalf of another or of others; a spokesperson. Cf. mouthpiece n. 4a. Now rare.In quot. 1892 intended as a rendering of a foreign expression.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > one having delegated or derived authority > [noun] > one who speaks for or on behalf of another
whistlec1380
dictourc1440
orator1474
prolocutor?a1475
prelocutor1500
vauntparler1534
paranympha1538
mouth1563
speech1578
speaker1583
promotor1603
ambassador1611
suffragant1613
suffragator1618
mouthpiece1776
linguist1819
megaphone1909
porte-parole1911
spokesperson1972
1563 J. Davidson Answer to Tractiue Kennedy in D. Laing Misc. Wodrow Soc. (1844) I. 253 The Spirit of God, quha spake be his prophetis,..(as his mouth).
1591 R. Bruce Serm. Edinb. iii. sig. E7 For seing the Lord hath appoynted vs to be his mouth, we man not speak what wee please.
1638–54 in A. Peterkin Rec. Kirk Scotl. (1838) I. 338 I was mouth for those who pressed the danger of novations.
1666 S. Pepys Diary 20 Oct. (1972) VII. 334 I was but the mouth of the rest, and spoke what they have dictated to me.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 403. ¶2 Every Coffee-house has some particular Statesman belonging to it, who is the Mouth of the Street where he lives.
1892 H. R. Haggard Nada the Lily 188 You are a little man to be the mouth of so big a chief.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §537/3 Criminal lawyer,..mouth, mouthpiece, [etc.].
1968 J. Philips Hot Summer Killing i. iii. 37 Your man on the phone is the Mouth for this scheme. But there are obviously dozens of others just as fanatical as he is.
b. Originally cant. A person who talks foolishly; a slow-witted or gullible person; a fool, a dupe. Now Irish English.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > duping, making a fool of > [noun] > gullible person, dupe
foola1382
woodcockc1430
geckc1530
cousinc1555
cokes1567
milch cow1582
gudgeon1584
coney1591
martin1591
gull1594
plover1599
rook1600
gull-finch1604
cheatee1615
goata1616
whirligig1624
chouse1649
coll1657
cully1664
bubble1668
lamb1668
Simple Simon?1673
mouth1680
dupe1681
cull1698
bub1699
game1699
muggins1705
colour1707
milk cow1727
flat1762
gulpin1802
slob1810
gaggee1819
sucker1838
hoaxee1840
softie1850
foozle1860
lemon1863
juggins1882
yob1886
patsy1889
yapc1894
fall guy1895
fruit1895
meemaw1895
easy mark1896
lobster1896
mark1896
wise guy1896
come-on1897
pushover1907
John1908
schnookle1908
Gretchen1913
jug1914
schnook1920
soft touch1924
prospect1931
steamer1932
punter1934
dill1941
Joe Soap1943
possum1945
Moreton Bay1953
easy touch1959
1680 C. Cotton Compl. Gamester (ed. 2) 7 The whole Gang will be ever and anon watching an opportunity to make a Mouth of you.
1753 Discov. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 31 One shall lead a Horse about, and another shall look out for a Mouth [note, an ignorant Person] that has a Horse to sell or change.
1823 ‘J. Bee’ Slang s.v. I've a mouth at the Mint, as brings me out plenty o' gold blanks.
a1908 H. C. Hart MS Coll. Ulster Words in M. Traynor Eng. Dial. Donegal (1953) 191/1 Mouth,..a fool; an awkward, clumsy fellow; lout; a term of great contempt. Ye great mouth ye!
1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 229/1 Mouth,..a well-meaning but blundering fool.
c. colloquial. A person who talks loudly, incessantly, and (usually) to little purpose; a loudmouth. Cf. also big mouth n. at big adj. and adv. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > loquacity or talkativeness > [noun] > talkative person
chaterestrea1250
jangler1303
babbler1366
blabbererc1375
jangleressc1386
talkerc1386
clatterer1388
cacklera1400
languager1436
carperc1440
mamblerc1450
praterc1500
jackdaw?1520
chewet1546
flibbertigibbet1549
clatterfart1552
patterer1552
piec1557
long tongue?1562
prattler1567
piet1574
twattler1577
brawler1581
nimble-chops1581
pratepie1582
roita1585
whittera1585
full-mouth1589
interprater1591
chatterer1592
pianet1594
bablatrice1595
parakeet1598
Bow-bell cockney1600
prattle-basket1602
bagpipe1603
worder1606
babliaminy1608
chougha1616
gabbler1624
blatterer1627
magpie1632
prate-apace1636
rattlea1637
clack1640
blateroon1647
overtalker1654
prate-roast1671
prattle-box1671
babelard1678
twattle-basket1688
mouth1699
tongue-pad1699
chatterista1704
rattler1709
morologist1727
chatterbox1774
palaverer1788
gabber1792
whitter-whatter1805
slangwhanger1807
nash-gab1816
pump1823
windbag1827
big mouth1834
gasbag1841
chattermag1844
tattle-monger1848
rattletrap1850
gasser1855
mouth almighty1864
clucker1869
talky-talky1869
gabster1870
loudmouth1870
tonguester1871
palaverista1873
mag1876
jawsmith1887
spieler1894
twitterer1895
yabbler1901
wordster1904
poofter1916
blatherer1920
ear-bender1922
burbler1923
woofer1934
ear-basher1944
motormouth1955
yacker1960
yammerer1978
jay-
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Mouth, a noisy Fellow.
1735 W. Pardon Dyche's New Gen. Eng. Dict. Mouth,..also a Cant Word for a noisy, silly, ignorant, prating, scolding Fellow.
1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down 70 ‘You're a mouth’, an expression of contempt.
1939 S. O'Casey I knock at Door 88 She cocked her ear, for that mouth of a drummer was saying something.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §422/1 Loquacious person; idle chatter,..mouth.
1963 N. Freeling Because of Cats xi. 176 Jansen was just a great mouth.
1984 Truck & Bus Transportation Jan. 56/2 If you meet him you'll know in two minutes flat he's a bit of a mouth.
d. colloquial (chiefly British). Usually derogatory. mouth almighty n. a person who talks a great deal, a self-opinionated person; also as a form of address, and as adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > loquacity or talkativeness > [noun] > talkative person
chaterestrea1250
jangler1303
babbler1366
blabbererc1375
jangleressc1386
talkerc1386
clatterer1388
cacklera1400
languager1436
carperc1440
mamblerc1450
praterc1500
jackdaw?1520
chewet1546
flibbertigibbet1549
clatterfart1552
patterer1552
piec1557
long tongue?1562
prattler1567
piet1574
twattler1577
brawler1581
nimble-chops1581
pratepie1582
roita1585
whittera1585
full-mouth1589
interprater1591
chatterer1592
pianet1594
bablatrice1595
parakeet1598
Bow-bell cockney1600
prattle-basket1602
bagpipe1603
worder1606
babliaminy1608
chougha1616
gabbler1624
blatterer1627
magpie1632
prate-apace1636
rattlea1637
clack1640
blateroon1647
overtalker1654
prate-roast1671
prattle-box1671
babelard1678
twattle-basket1688
mouth1699
tongue-pad1699
chatterista1704
rattler1709
morologist1727
chatterbox1774
palaverer1788
gabber1792
whitter-whatter1805
slangwhanger1807
nash-gab1816
pump1823
windbag1827
big mouth1834
gasbag1841
chattermag1844
tattle-monger1848
rattletrap1850
gasser1855
mouth almighty1864
clucker1869
talky-talky1869
gabster1870
loudmouth1870
tonguester1871
palaverista1873
mag1876
jawsmith1887
spieler1894
twitterer1895
yabbler1901
wordster1904
poofter1916
blatherer1920
ear-bender1922
burbler1923
woofer1934
ear-basher1944
motormouth1955
yacker1960
yammerer1978
jay-
1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) 182 Mouth, a common expression of contempt, equivalent to muff; ‘you are a mouth, and you will die a lip,’ is a vulgar form of abuse. Mouth-almighty, a superlative form of the former expression, applied to a noisy, talkative person.
1868 Harper's Mag. Dec. 160*/1 Here lies the body of Robert Gordin; Mouth almighty and teeth accordin: Stranger, tread lightly over this wonder: If he opens his mouth, you're gone, by thunder!
1939 V. Fisher Children of God i. iv. 37 ‘You're awful mouth-almighty today,’ she said, looking at him with contempt.
1999 Evening Post (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 28 Jan. If I was them, I would be standing there with my arms folded, saying ‘come on then, Mouth Almighty, show us what you're made of’.
1999 Scotsman 22 July 33/2 Coverage of Chelsea and Newcastle in last year's European Cup-Winners' Cup, along with England and Scotland's away Euro 2000 qualifiers were snapped up by the minority channel, with their mouth almighty commentator Jonathan Pearce.
II. An aperture, hole, gap, etc.
5.
a. The opening for filling or emptying a container of any kind (esp. a bag, sack, or bottle).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > an opening or aperture > [noun] > mouth or orifice
mouthOE
orifice?a1425
gull1545
chops1589
orifex1590
mouthpiece1683
maw1818
the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > an opening or aperture > [noun] > mouth or orifice > of anything having capacity
mouthOE
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xlii. 28 Þa he þæt feoh geseah on þæs sacces muþe.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2216 Ðo breðere seckes hauen he filt..And bunden ðe muðes ðor bi-foren.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 21 (MED) Þe maris of womman..closiþ hir mouþ, þat þer myȝte not entre the poynt of a nedle.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 347 Mowthe of a botelle, lura.
a1500 Pennyworth of Wit (Cambr.) 237 in Englische Studien (1884) 7 123 (MED) He caste the pakk downe in the flore..They ondedyn the mouth aryght, There they sawe a ryall syght.
1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. G5v They will put good corne in the top or mouth of the bag.
1618 in J. Imrie & J. G. Dunbar Accts. Masters of Wks. (1982) II. 99 To the couper for ten girthis to the sand poik mouthes.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. ii. 97 Stop the mouth of your Syringe close with your finger.
1745 J. Swift Direct. to Servants 22 And lastly, wipe the Mouth of the Bottle with the Palm of your Hand.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. IV. 191 Natural labour, which consists in a gradual enlargement of the mouth of the womb.
1880 Encycl. Brit. XII. 548/1 By the formation of a mouth to the sac, the enteron acquires the functions of a digestive retort.
1928 Amer. Mercury Oct. 224/2 When the cups had been knocked about and we were too fuddled to find them we drank from jug and bottle mouths.
1980 D. Cameron Ballooning Handbk. i. 12 When heated, the air expands and part of it is expelled through the mouth of the balloon.
b. spec. The aperture for charging or filling a furnace, oven, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > heating or making hot > that which or one who heats > [noun] > a device for heating or warming > devices for heating buildings, rooms, etc. > stove > opening of
mouthOE
OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 16 Sept. 211 Ic geseo fægere weras stondan in ðisses ofnes muþe, þa tostredað þone lig þæt he ne mæg na sceðþan þisse fæmnan.
c1300 Jewish Boy in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1923) 38 314 (MED) Þat child amidde he caste & dutte þe ouenes mouþ.
c1390 G. Chaucer Parson's Tale 856 He were a greet fool that wolde kisse the mouth of a brennynge ouene.
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. 3329 At his þrote þer issid oute with-al A flawme of fire, as of a fournes mouthe.
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Gouernaunce of Princis (1993) xxxiii. 110 Jt had a grete fournas..bot ye mouth of jt [etc.].
1574 R. Scot Perfite Platforme of Hoppe Garden 41 At one ende belowe, besides the mouth of the furnace, you must make a little doore into the roume beneath the bedde [or upper floor of the ‘Oste’].
1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles x. 7 And Cricket sing at the Ouens mouth . View more context for this quotation
a1650 G. Boate Nat. Hist. Ireland (1726) 76 And open the mouth thereof [of the furnace], or the timpas as the artsmen call it.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 888 They..like a Furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoak and ruddy flame. View more context for this quotation
1797 Encycl. Brit. XV. 389/1 He then discontinues the fire, and entirely closes up the mouth of the [porcelain] furnace.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xcvi. 469 Removing the fire-board from the front of the try-works, the bare masonry of that side is exposed, penetrated by the two iron mouths of the furnaces.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1486/2 Mouth,..the hole in a furnace out of which melted metal flows.
1969 D. Griffiths Talk of my Town 24 Mouth, the inside section of a round kiln furnace was called a throat, and the outside section was called a mouth.
1989 Christian Sci. Monitor (Electronic ed.) 14 July 14 When the dough is ready, they use ‘peels’ (flat wooden shovels) to transfer the loaves into the mouth of the 16-foot brick oven.
6.
a. The surface opening of a pit, cave, well, ditch, etc.; (figurative) the entrance to Hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > entrance to
hell-doorOE
hell gateOE
gates of hellc1000
hell-mouthOE
mouthOE
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hole or pit > [noun] > opening of
mouthOE
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > mouth or top of mine or shaft
adit1602
bank head1645
mouth1702
bank1708
sough1747
pithead1839
brace1881
mouthing1883
OE Lambeth Psalter lxviii. 16 Non me demergat tempestas aquae neque absorbeat me profundum neque urgeat super me puteus os suum : næ me besæncte reohnes wæteres ne forswelge deopnys ne ne geneadige uel generewe pytt his muþ.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 43 (MED) Þe pit tineð his muð ouer þe man þe lið on fule synnen.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xxix. 2 He seez apytt in þe feld..& þe mouþ of it was yclosid with a grete stone.
c1480 (a1400) Seven Sleepers 159 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 430 Þane til his mene cane he byd, þat þai suld..þe cawe mowth stope.
a1500 St. Jerome 333 He made himselffe a grave in the mouthe of the cave, where oure lord lay whan he was bore.
1551 R. Record Pathway to Knowl. Pref. In dichyng, if he kepe not a proportion of bredth in the mouthe, to the bredthe of the bottome..the diche shall be faultie.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. xi. sig. K8v His deepe deuouring iawes Wyde gaped, like the griesly mouth of hell.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 216 This is the mouth o'th Cell. View more context for this quotation
1702 T. Savery Miner's Friend 35 The Coals commonly burned on the Mouths of the Coal-Pits.
1763 in S. Smiles Lives Engineers (1861) I. 359 (note) At the mouth of the cavern is erected a water-bellows.
1809 Ann. Reg. (1821) 867 The miners in the work, and the winders at the mouth of the pit.
1874 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. (ed. 4) iii. iii. 330 The rise in price at the pit's mouth has..not been less than 10s. a ton.
1940 E. Hemingway For whom Bell Tolls ii. 20 Anselmo came out of the mouth of the cave with a deep stone basin full of red wine and with his fingers through the handles of three cups.
1958 J. Carew Black Midas i. 8 From this day I put a curse on Richard Dolly, that the mouth of hell should yawn under he foot all he life.
1991 M. Curtin Plastic Tomato Cutter xxvii. 234 Watching the cut of those encircling the mouth of the grave..I realized that part of me was being buried.
b. The crater of a volcano.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > crater
mouth1604
crater1613
pit-crater1862
caldera1865
maar1895
1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies iii. ii. 119 Those which are in the Vulcans and mouths of fire at the Indies.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 59 A mouth continually throwing forth boiling pitch.
1768 W. Hamilton in Philos. Trans. 1767 (Royal Soc.) 57 195 The mouth of the volcano threw up every minute a girandole of red hot stones, to an immense height.
1815 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. (ed. 2) x. 230 The ancient mouth or crater of Teneriffe.
1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 340 The great crater of Vesuvius had been gradually filled by lava..and by scoriæ falling from the explosions of minor mouths.
1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 189 At the mouth of the volcanic pipe, there is usually a funnel-shaped opening known as the crater.
1962 E. A. Vincent tr. A. Rittmann Volcanoes i. 26 The slowly extruded lava piles up into a dome over the mouth of the vent.
1991 A. Chaudhuri Strange & Sublime Addr. (1992) xiv. 127 The gulmohur trees would explode into fierce orange flowers..with the effect of a volcano erupting and balancing, momentarily, the unspilled lava in its mouth.
7. The part of a river where it enters the sea, a lake, etc.; the point where one body of water opens out into a larger one; the entrance to a harbour, valley, etc.See etymological note above.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > system > [noun] > mouth or outfall
mouthlOE
issue1423
firthc1425
estuary15..
fall1511
port1555
inset1559
water mouth1574
open1582
emboguing1603
ostium1611
inver1615
outfall1629
ostiary1646
influx1652
disclosure1660
discharge1688
waterfoot1730
outflux1739
embouchure1792
sortie1809
beal1819
debouchure1832
salting-place1842
embouchement1844
debouchment1859
ria1887
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 792 His lic ligð æt Tinan muþe.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 477 (MED) Hii come here to engelond to þe hauene of totteneis..as in an hauene mouþ.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 229 (MED) Harald Harefoot..cam wiþ þre hondred schippes in þe mowþe of þe ryver Tyne.
?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) 4662 (MED) Þai come to derwent water mouth.
1495 Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) xv. cix. 528 Hollond is a prouynce by the mouth of the Ryne.
1543 ( Chron. J. Hardyng (1812) 35 (MED) He..landed then in Italia, In Tibre mouth.
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie iv. ix. 121 [Arabia] ioyneth there with the firme land of Egypt..at the mouth of the red sea.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 422 The riuer Volga..hath threescore and ten mouthes or falls into the Caspian Sea.
1640 Dumbarton Burgh Rec. (1860) 61 Erle of Argle..to vissit the mouth of Clyd and plaices about Dunbartane.
1725 D. Defoe New Voy. round World i. 16 We..stood South again past the Mouth of the Streights of Magellan.
1796 W. Marshall Rural Econ. W. Eng. II. 178 The narrowed mouth of the Vale of Taunton.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 556 The castle of Ealan Ghierig, situated at the mouth of Loch Riddan.
1879 S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Palestine iii. 50 Near the mouth of the Nile Nelson annihilated the fleet of Napoleon.
1905 N.Y. Evening Post 10 June 6 ‘Fish dinners’ and clam fries are to be had at any number of eating-houses at the river's mouth.
1939 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. V. 124 The Milesian deportees were settled at the mouth of the River Tigris.
1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. ii. 183 As more and more foreset beds are laid down, the mouth of the river is carried out into the lake.
1991 Nature Canada Fall 41/2 I saw my first Ontario opossum, a roadkill, near the mouth of the Grand River on Lake Erie.
8. The opening by which an animal enters or leaves its nest, burrow, etc.; esp. the entrance of a beehive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > bee-keeping > [noun] > beehive > parts of
moutha1398
stool?1523
skirt1555
hackle1609
smoot1615
imp1618
bolster1623
cop1623
underlaya1642
hack1658
tee-hole1669
frame1673
hood1686
alighting board1780
body box1823
superhive1847
super1855
quilt1870
queen excluder1881
bar-super1884
brood box1888
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > [noun] > family Sciuridae (squirrel) > dray > entrance to
mouth1607
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 272v Whanne þe mouþ of þe huyues is to large, þay [sc. bees] makeþ it lasse.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxxvii It is conuenyent that the hyue be sette in a garden..and the mouthe of the hyue towarde the son.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 657 The mouth of their [sc. squirrels'] nest is variable, sometimes at the sides, and sometimes at the top.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 123 Whether thou build the Palace of thy Bees With twisted Osiers, or with Barks of Trees; Make but a narrow Mouth . View more context for this quotation
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Hive-dross or Bee-glue, a kind of Wax which Bees make at the Mouth of their Hive, to keep out the Cold.
1781 P. Beckford Thoughts on Hunting xxiii. 308 Poachers..catch the young foxes in trenches dug at the mouth of the hole, which I believe they call tunning them.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. vii. 144 The bizcacha has one very singular habit; namely, dragging every hard object to the mouth of its burrow.
1871 J. Burroughs Wake-robin 163 The mouth [of the Baltimore oriole's nest] is hemmed or overhanded with horse-hair.
1948 C. P. Mountford Brown Men & Red Sand 58 I saw many homes of the curious mulga ant, an insect which builds a mud wall..round the mouth of its nest, and then thatches the wall with dead mulga leaves.
1972 Beekeeping (ed. 11) 24 When the bees are in a bushy place such as a hedge, the skep should be placed over the top of them, mouth downwards, then the bees encouraged to climb up into it.
9.
a. The opening at the end of a tube, passage, drain, etc.; the open end of a trumpet or other wind instrument; (Anatomy) the point at which a blood or lymph vessel starts or branches from another (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > an opening or aperture > [noun] > mouth or orifice > of a tube, passage, etc.
mouth1582
the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > indentation or cavity > [noun] > opening or hole
holea1400
vent1567
perforation1578
mouth1634
foramen1672
ostium1683
stoma1684
buttonhole1753
inlet1828
aditus1839
os1858
hiatus1886
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 95v Þilke superfluitees and dritty comeþ doun to þe mowthes of þe veynes and stoppiþ and makeþ þicke þe mouthes.
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame 1685 The breth..wente Out of his trumpes mouth.
c1540 J. Bellenden tr. H. Boece Hyst. & Cron. Scotl. (1821) I. xxxiv We saw his hanche bane, als mekill as the haill bane of ane man; for we schot our arme in the mouth thairof.
1563 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1875) III. 166 To close the mouthis of all the oppin conductis quhilk cumis to the hie streit.
1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias i. f. 79v There were twentie Trumpets..the mouthes whereof, were..set with stone.
1634 T. Johnson tr. A. Paré Chirurg. Wks. ix. i. 321 That solution of continuity, which happens in the vessells, their mouths being open, is termed Anastomasis.
1671 W. Salmon Synopsis Medicinæ iii. xvi. 361 Apperitives..open the mouths of the vessels.
1734 E. Hody Giffard's Cases Midwifry lvi. 128 The mouths of its vessels which were before inosculated into the Placenta.
1764 T. H. Croker et al. Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. I. at Chimney The mouth of the tube, or that part joined to the chimney back.
1839 H. W. Longfellow Hyperion I. i. vi The valley..opens upon the broad plain of the Rhine, like the mouth of a trumpet.
1839–47 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. III. 228/2 The lacteals commence..not by open mouths, but by a delicate network of vessels.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 563 The mouth of the main drain at its outlet should be protected with masonry.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 865 The mouth of the burrow..is usually marked by a vesicle.
1925 R. H. Mottram Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four! 101 The two bays by the crump-hole at the mouth of the communication trench were always empty.
1981 A. Gray Lanark (1982) ii. 10 The tramstop was near the mouth of a close.
b. The muzzle of a gun.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > parts and fittings of firearms > [noun] > barrel > muzzle
mouth1530
muzzle1566
nose-end1961
1530 T. Wall Bk. Crests in Ancestor (1905) 12 88 Vaughan Bayly..beryth to his crest thre gonnes in pal the mouth upward shoting in stockes gold..with fire appering at the mouthes of the gonnes.
1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1410/1 The earle..laid the mouth of the dag vpon his left pap..and..discharged the same.
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) ii. i. 382 Their battering Canon charged to the mouthes . View more context for this quotation
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. xii. 72 You put the Brass into the Mouth of the Piece.
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Metal When the Mouth of a Great Gun lies lower than her Breech, they say, She lies under Metal.
1762 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy V. x. 56 He would march up to the mouth of a cannon, though he saw the lighted match at the very touch-hole.
1802 G. Morris in J. Sparks Life G. Morris (1832) III. 396 Are our arguments to fly from the mouths of our cannon?
1841 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 4 30/2 A long coil of rope..with a stout piece of wood or plug..fastened to it. This plug is intended to be put in the mouth of the gun.
1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xxv. 416 So they came alongside, under many craning heads of seamen and projecting mouths of guns.
1934 V. M. Yeates Winged Victory xxi. 165 He could not go down on to the carpet again point blank into the mouths of the machine guns.
1982 K. Bulmer You'll be all Right (1983) (BNC) 88 The gaping round mouth of the gun, centred squarely on his left eye. Finger tightening on trigger.
10. The external opening of a wound, sore, etc. Now chiefly poetic.
ΚΠ
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 223 Water of rose..heliþ þe festre..and makeþ þe mouþ þerof so wyde þat a bone þat is Inne ybroke oþer yroted may be ydrawe and ytake oute at þe fulle.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 55v (MED) Som ar made for to elarge þe mouþ of þe wonde.
a1500 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Wellcome) f. 30v (MED) Fester is depe bile þat hathe a streyt mouthe and a brode bosum.
1585 J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator 443/1 Vulneris os,..the mouth, opening, or widenesse of a wound.
1648 J. Beaumont Psyche xii. clxxiv. 216 And what but Balsame can desired be To stop the Wounds wide Mouth and bloody Crie?
1726 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxii. Observ. 144 The blood sprung as from a pipe, through the mouth of the wound.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Tents whose office is to enlarge..the mouth of any wound, or ulcer..are usually called sponge-tents.
1827 R. Emmons Fredoniad IV. xxxii. 55 The mouth of every sore Heal'd as though touch'd by some superior power.
1846 Amer. Whig Rev. Apr. 352/2 Over the right temple a reeking wound, gaping with gory mouth, came gradually into visible tangibility.
1935–8 R. Jeffers Hellenistics in Coll. Poetry (1989) II. v. 527 The old wound opens its clotted mouth to ask for new wounds.
1983 T. Hughes River 18 I imagine a Caesarian, The wound's hapless mouth.
11. Botany.
a. The opening produced by dehiscence of a capsule, esp. the capsule of a moss.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > moss > [noun] > parts of
moutha1398
fimbria1752
calyptra1753
veil1760
lid1776
apophysis1785
operculum1788
peristoma1792
peristome1799
peristomium1806
hair-point1818
vaginula1818
perigynium1821
vaginule1821
gemma1830
paraphyllium1832
tympanum1832
perigon1857
pseudopodium1861
commissure1863
ocrea1863
cap1864
chaeta1866
struma1866
membranulet1891
pyxis1900
pseudopod1914
annulus-
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 231 In eyþer syde of þe stalk þerof [sc. Iusquiamus] groweþ as it were crabbe hedis, as it fareþ in pom granate..Mowþes þerof beþ departed and ycloue and haueþ dyuers seed yliche to popy seed.
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 73 Peristoma, the fringe at the mouth of the Capsule of Mosses.
1857 A. Henfrey Elem. Course Bot. 161 When the lid falls off, the border of the mouth of the capsule [of moss] is found either naked or furnished with..teeth.
1861 R. Bentley Man. Bot. i. v. 377 At the dehiscence of the sporangium the stoma or mouth is entire.
1870 J. D. Hooker Student's Flora Brit. Islands 132 Chrysosplenium..Capsule..opening at the top by a cruciate mouth.
1955 G. M. Smith Cryptogamic Bot. (ed. 2) II. v. 125 Shedding of the operculum does not result in an exposure of the spores because the peristome teeth still cover the mouth of the spore sac.
1994 Hikobia 11 471 The spore sac seems to participate in spore presentation at the mouth of the urn.
b. The orifice of the corolla tube of a flower.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > flower or part containing reproductive organs > [noun] > parts of > petal > petals or corolla > orifice of tube of corolla
mouth1759
1759 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 7) Rosmarinus..The Flower has..the Mouth erect, and divided into two Lips.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xxii. 318 Snapdragon... The colours of these are red with white or yellow mouths.
1857 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. (1861) IV. 32 (Hound's Tongue.)... Its mouth closed by prominent blunt scales.
1879 Academy 32 The open bell-shaped mouth of the corolla.
1991 Garden (Royal Hort. Soc.) Jan. 27/2 Both are funnel-shaped, the corolla longer to 3cm..with a flared four-lobed mouth.
†12. The female external genitals; the vulva, the vagina. In early Scottish use frequently in mouth thankless, i.e. ‘mouth without power of speech’. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sex organs > female sex organs > [noun]
cuntc1230
quivera1382
chosec1386
privy chosea1387
quoniamc1405
naturec1470
shell1497
box1541
water gate1541
mouth1568
quiver case1568
water gap1586
cunnya1593
medlar1597
mark1598
buggle-boo1600
malkin1602
lap1607
skin coat1611
quim1613
nest1614
watermilla1626
bum1655
merkin1656
twat1656
notch1659
commodity1660
modicum1660
crinkum-crankum1670
honeypot1673
honour1688
muff1699
pussy1699
puss1707
fud1771
jock1790
cock?1833
fanny?1835
vaginac1890
rug1893
money-maker1896
Berkeley1899
Berkeley Hunt1899
twitchet1899
mingea1903
snatch1904
beaver1927
coozie1934
Sir Berkeley1937
pocketbook1942
pranny1949
zatch1950
cooch1955
bearded clam1962
noonie1966
chuff1967
coozea1968
carpet1981
pum-pum1983
front bum1985
coochie1986
punani1987
front bottom1991
va-jay-jay2000
1568 W. Kennedy in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS f. 268 All this I hard ane man raif..of mowth thankles.
1568 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS f. 143v He put his hand in at hir spair... Qoth he, this mowth wald fane be fed.
a1628 J. Carmichaell Coll. Prov. in Scots (1957) No. 1102 Manie men servis mouth thankless.
1675 R. Head Misc. in Nugæ Venales (ed. 2) 318 ‘Who are most gluttonous?’ ‘Women, for having two Mouths one for the Day, and the other for the Night, they feed continually.’
1707 E. Ward London Terræ-filius No. 4. 12 Her Mouth for Substenance, and that of Generation, are such near Neighbours, that who-ever Kisses the one, if he has but a good Nose, may smell the Breath of the other.
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. 68 With one hand he gently disclos'd the lips of that luscious mouth of nature.
†13. The opening between the jaws of a pair of scissors, pincers, or a vice, etc. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > clutching or gripping equipment > [noun] > tongs or pincers > fork between jaws of
mouth1576
1576 R. Scot Perfite Platforme of Hoppe Garden (rev. ed.) 23 They [sc. pincers] must be one yarde in length, whereof sixe or seauen ynches maye be allowed for the mouth or lower end of them, which serueth to claspe..the Poale,..the mouth [should be] somewhat hollowe in the middest.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Forpie, the mouth, or middle of an opened paire of sheeres.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1486/2 Mouth,..the opening of a vice between its chops, chaps, cheeks, or jaws.
14.
a. The hole in the stock of a plane through which wood shavings pass.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > shaping tools or equipment > plane > [noun] > stock > hole in
mouth1678
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. iv. 68 Nor doth it [sc. the Rabbet-Plane] deliver its shaving at a Mouth on the top of the Stock as the other Plains do: But it hath its Mouth on the sides.
1846 C. Holtzapffel Turning & Mech. Manip. II. 478 In all the bench planes..the mouth is a wedge-formed cavity.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. I. 207/2 Badger Plane, a panel plane whose mouth is cut on the skew, and from side to side, so as to work up close to a corner in making a rabbet or sinking.
1954 W. E. Kelsey Carpentry, Joinery & Woodcutting Machinery i. 16 Shoulder planes..are metal rebate planes with a narrow mouth and a low-pitched cutter.
1979 C. Ford Making Mus. Instruments ii. 44 A block-plane with adjustable mouth..will be best for this.
b. An aperture in the side of a musical pipe, having a sharp edge against which air is blown to produce a sound.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > wind instrument > [noun] > parts generally > part applied to lips
mouthpiece1673
mouth1727
embouchure1834
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > organ > [noun] > pipe > other parts of pipes
tongue1551
mouth1727
lip1728
reed1728
wind-cuttera1834
labium1847
beak1852
beard1852
underlip1852
wedge1852
body tube1854
plate-of-wind1875
wind-way1875
1727–52 E. Chambers Cycl. at Organ Over this aperture is the mouth BBCC; whose upper lip, CC, being level, cuts the wind as it comes out at the aperture.
1855 E. J. Hopkins Organ xviii. 83 The mouth..is the horizontal cutting or opening that occurs at the junction of the body and foot of the pipe.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1486/2 Mouth,..in a flute,—the edge of the opening against which the air from the mouth of the performer is cut.
1983 Sci. Amer. Jan. 84/2 Organ pipes are open at the top and tapered at the bottom, with a ‘mouth’ (a slot) running across a flattened section above the taper.
15. Zoology. The aperture of the shell of a gastropod mollusc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Mollusca > [noun] > Testacea (shelled molluscs) > shelled mollusc > shell > part of
auricle1665
heel1673
lip1681
mouth1681
whirl1681
rib1711
antihelix1721
canal1734
columella1755
vesture1755
body whirl1776
fent1776
pillar1776
pillar-lip1776
septum1786
aperture1794
body whorl1807
costa1812
seam1816
spine1822
umbo1822
varix1822
peristome1828
summit1828
nucleus1833
concameration1835
lunula1835
nympha1836
nymph1839
lunule1842
peritreme1848
body chamber1851
axis1866
umbone1867
liration1904
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis 124 Note That when I speak of the Right or Left Lip of a Shell, I mean, as it is held with the Mouth downward.
1752 J. Hill Gen. Nat. Hist. III. 134 The slender Turbo, with ventricose spires, and a small rounded mouth.
1776 E. M. da Costa Elements Conchol. 97 The mouth is oblong-oval.
1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 107/1 [Helix.] 4th Group... Mouth rounded.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species xii. 397 Land-shells, when hybernating and having a membranous diaphragm over the mouth of the shell, might be floated in chinks of drifted timber across moderately wide arms of the sea.
1872 H. A. Nicholson Man. Palæontol. 244 The shells in which the mouth has this form are termed ‘holostomatous’.
1939 T. L. Green Pract. Animal Biol. i. 83 Note the opaque operculum closing the shell mouth.
1985 R. Bly Loving Woman in Two Worlds (1987) ii. 29 The cowrie shell has its rosy mouth.
†16. Fortification. The wider, interior, opening of an embrasure. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1839 F. A. Griffiths Artillerist's Man. xi. 223 The mouth of the embrazure is the outward or widest part of it.
1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) 126 The opening of the embrasure is termed the neck,..that towards the country, the mouth.
1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 398 Mouth,..the interior opening of an embrasure, from 18 inches to 2 feet wide, according to the caliber of the gun.
†17. The broad sharp edge of a spade, etc. Obsolete (regional (chiefly Scottish) in later use).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > [noun] > cutting part of > blade or edge of
bitc1330
blade1330
scissor blade1802
mouth1851
scissor leg1860
1851 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm (ed. 2) II. 619 The pick-loosened earth is removed..with the narrow spade..having a mouth 6 inches wide.
1886 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester II. 216 Aw mun send th' shoo to th' smithy to have a yew maith.
1920 J. Firth Reminisc. 108 The measurement of the sandy peat was ‘t'ree spade mooths’.
III. A thing placed in or against the mouth.
18. Horse Riding. The part of a bit which crosses the horse's mouth; = mouthpiece n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [noun] > bit > parts of
cannon?1561
cheek?1561
port?1561
player1566
upset mouth1566
rowel1590
mouth1607
upset1607
liberty1667
mouthpiece1728
top-roll1728
cheekpiece1864
branch1884
bit-maker1902
1607 G. Markham Cavelarice ii. 53 This mouth giueth all libertie possible to the tonge.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Bit The Cannon with a fast Mouth all of a Piece.
1963 E. H. Edwards Saddlery viii. 73 The Rugby Pelham..made either with a plain mouth or with the addition of a port and rollers.
†19. = mouthpiece n. 1a. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > tobacco > smoking > articles or materials used in smoking > [noun] > pipe > mouthpiece
mouth1821
1821 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto V liii. 161 Pipes decorated With amber mouths.

Phrases

P1. (Relating to sense 3.)
a. through (also by, †in) the mouth of a person [compare Luke 1:70] : through a person acting as spokesperson or messenger. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > action or function of a delegate or deputy > as deputy or representative [phrase] > through someone as spokesman
through (also by, in) the mouth of a personOE
OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) i. 70 Swa he spræc þurh hys halegra witegena muð.
c1200 Serm. in Eng. & Germanic Stud. (1961) 7 64 Steorre he vas icleped muchel er he iboren vere [þu]rþ balames muþ þe prophete þus queþind[e].
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) 2006 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 164 (MED) It nis mi dede nouȝt, Ake þoruȝ þe popes owene mouthþ in sentence heo beoth i-brouȝt.
c1390 G. Chaucer Prioress's Tale 1798 By mouth of innocentz, lo, heere thy myght.
a1425 Rule St. Benet (Lansd.) (1902) 2 (MED) We aske þe, lauerd, þurȝ þe muz of þe profete, Wha in þi tabernakil sal wne.
c1500 Barounis Lawis f. 6, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) That dome gevin be the moutht of N soytour of B is evill.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxiiijv They rode forthe to mete the Emperour, whom..they receiued honorably by the mouthe of my Lorde of Mentz.
1611 Bible (King James) Luke i. 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets. View more context for this quotation
1666 Forbes Baron Court Bk. 267 In the mouth of the choncelar.
1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. 76 The customs of London differ from all others in point of trial: for, if the existence of the custom be brought in question, it shall not be tried by a jury, but by certificate from the lord mayor and aldermen by the mouth of their recorder.
1870 Eng. Gilds Gloss. Assoyne,..excuse sent by the mouth of another for non-appearance.
1911 Catholic Encycl. XII. 480/1 On being asked with what one should approach and kneel before the Most High God, He replies by the mouth of Micheas.
1993 N.Y. Times Mag. 5 Dec. 44/2 Through the mouth of a Japanophile detective, John Connor, Crichton proposes the meta-Clausewitzian thesis that Japan views business as the extension of war by other means.
†b. with (also of) one mouth: with one voice or one consent; unanimously. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > statement > agreement, concurrence, or unanimity > [adverb]
with (also of) one mouthOE
with (also of, at) one accordc1275
common assentc1300
at onec1320
with one stevenc1320
at a voicea1325
at one wordc1325
covinlichec1330
in one (also o) voicea1393
with one (also o, a) voice?a1400
in one vote1546
of all hands1548
perlassent1548
una voce1567
by common consent1574
consentively1578
concordably1579
currently1593
unanimately1599
by or with one assent1611
unanimously1611
unanimely1625
consentingly1660
harmoniously1671
univocally1671
consentaneously1817
concurringly1840
solidly1865
solid1884
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 248 Þa oðre..sungon þysne sang, swylce of anum muðe.
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) 915 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 132 (MED) We habbez ore red þarof i-nome, and mid one mouþe ech-on to queme þe kinge we redez þe.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) 2 Paralip. xviii. 12 Lo! þe woordis of alle þe prophetis with oon mowþ goode thingis tellen to þe king.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 15039 (MED) All þai sang als wit a muth.
?1571 tr. G. Buchanan Detectioun Marie Quene of Scottes sig. Fj With one mouth made protestatioun.
1611 Bible (King James) 1 Kings xxii. 13 The words of the prophets declare good vnto the King with one mouth . View more context for this quotation
1738 J. Wesley Jrnl. 12 May (1827) I. 97 They added with one mouth, that this faith was the gift..of God.
1876 A. C. Swinburne Erechtheus 462 The twelve most high Gods judging with one mouth Acclaimed her victress.
†c. to speak mouth to (also with) mouth and variants: to talk personally, face to face. Obsolete.In quot. OE after post-classical Latin ore ad os (Vulgate, itself after Hebrew peh 'el-peh, hence also 1611), and in quot. c1400 after post-classical Latin os ad os (Vulgate, itself after Hellenistic Greek στόμα πρὸς στόμα).
ΚΠ
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Num. (Claud.) xii. 8 Ic sprece to him muðe to muðe & openlice.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 105 (MED) He wið hem spec muð wið muðe.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1872) IV. 361 (MED) Seneca..visited Poule, nouȝt onliche mouþ wiþ mouþ, but also wiþ lettres and pistles.
c1400 Prose Versions New Test.: 3 John (Selwyn) (1904) 14 (MED) For y trowe hastly to se þe, & mouþ to mouþ we schul speke.
1529 T. More Dialogue Heresyes i, in Wks. 174/2 But he [sc. God] tolde it you not mouth to mouth.
1611 Bible (King James) Num. xii. 8 With him will I speake mouth to mouth euen apparantly, and not in darke speeches. View more context for this quotation
1895 S. D. F. Salmond Christian Doctr. Immortality ii. iv. 241 A fellowship in which Jehovah speaks mouth to mouth with his servant.
d. †to hold one's mouth: to remain silent; to restrain one's speech (obsolete). to shut (also close) one's mouth: to refrain from speaking. to keep one's mouth shut: to remain silent, to refrain from inopportune or indiscreet speech. †to make up one's mouth: to finish speaking (obsolete). to stop a person's mouth: to keep a person from talking. Cf. to open one's mouth at open v. 3a, to run one's mouth at run v. Phrases 2z, to shoot off one's mouth, to shoot one's mouth off at shoot v. 23g.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > taciturnity or reticence > be silent/refrain from speaking [verb (intransitive)]
to hold one's tonguec897
to keep one's tonguec897
to be (hold oneself) stilla1000
to say littleOE
to hold one's mouthc1175
to shut (also close) one's mouthc1175
to keep (one's) silence?c1225
to hold (also have, keep) one's peacea1275
stillc1330
peacec1395
mum1440
to say neither buff nor baff1481
to keep (also play) mum1532
to charm the tonguec1540
to have (also set, keep) a hatch before the door1546
hush1548
to play (at) mumbudgeta1564
not to say buff to a wolf's shadow1590
to keep a still tongue in one's head1729
to sing small1738
to sew up1785
let that fly stick in (or to) the wall1814
to say (also know) neither buff nor stye1824
to choke back1844
mumchance1854
to keep one's trap shut1899
to choke up1907
to belt up1949
to keep (or stay) shtum1958
shtum1958
the world > relative properties > wholeness > completeness > make complete [verb (transitive)] > complete, fill up, or make up
to make up one's mouthc1175
fulfila1225
through-fill?c1225
upspeed1338
supplya1398
araisea1440
to make outa1562
accomplish1577
complement1643
implement1843
the mind > language > speech > taciturnity or reticence > be silent/refrain from speaking [verb (intransitive)] > stop speaking
to make up one's mouthc1175
to shut (also close) one's mouthc1175
blina1300
dumba1300
leavea1375
to put a sock in ita1529
hush1548
silence1551
stay1551
stow1567
stop1579
to save one's breath (also wind)1605
tace1697
stubble it!1699
shut your trap!1796
to keep a calm (or quiet) sough1808
stubble your whids!1830
to shut up1840
to dry up1853
pawl1867
subside1872
to pipe down1876
to shut (one's) head, face1876
shurrup1893
to shut off1896
clam1916
dry1934
shtum1958
to oyster up1973
the mind > language > speech > taciturnity or reticence > refrain from uttering [verb (transitive)] > silence or prevent from speaking
to stop a person's mouthc1175
stilla1225
to keep ina1420
stifle1496
to knit up1530
to muzzle (up) the mouth1531
choke1533
muzzle?1542
to tie a person's tongue1544
tongue-tiea1555
silence1592
untongue1598
to reduce (a person or thing) to silence1605
to bite in1608
gaga1616
to swear downa1616
to laugh down1616
stifle1621
to cry down1623
unworda1627
clamour1646
splint1648
to take down1656
snap1677
stick1708
shut1809
to shut up1814
to cough down1823
to scrape down1855
to howl down1872
extinguish1878
hold1901
shout1924
to pipe down1926
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eat [verb (intransitive)] > finish meal with a treat
to make up one's mouthc1175
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > loss or lack of voice > lose the voice [verb (intransitive)] > not utter
to shut (also close) one's mouthc1175
to hold (also have, keep) one's peacea1275
peacec1395
muffa1500
to put a sock in ita1529
whista1547
to say not muff1652
to hold one's whisht1786
to shut (one's) pan1799
to shut up1840
to hold one's whistc1874
to shut (one's) head, face1876
to wrap up1943
c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine Old Eng. Homilies (1993) 177 Healde we ure muð wið unnytte spece.
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) 2035 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 165 (MED) Beo stille..hold þinne mouthþ.
c1330 in T. Wright Polit. Songs Eng. (1839) 327 (MED) He may wid a litel silver stoppen his mouth.
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. 1275 (MED) Sche Comandeth me my mowth to close.
a1500 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 177 (MED) Be styl, clerk, & hold thi mowth.
c1535 M. Nisbet New Test. in Scots (1901) I. 11 And how Christ stoppit the mowthis of the Saduceis.
1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie (new ed.) 3rd Serm. sig. Eviij (margin) A preacher offyce is to be a mouth stopper. But not to haue hys one mouthe stopped wyth a benefice or byshoprike.
1606 T. Dekker Seuen Deadly Sinnes London i. sig. B1v The poore Orator hauing made vp his mouth, Bankruptisme gaue him very good words.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xxiv. 150 Stop your mouth dame, or with this paper shall I stople it. View more context for this quotation
1645 in A. L. Murray Lag Charters (1958) 57 The takeing of my lord of Quiensberrie hes stoped all yowr freends mowths.
1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 214 We stopt his Mouth with his Share of 200 000 Pieces of Eight.
1782 T. Grenville Let. 4 June in Duke of Buckingham Mem. Court & Cabinets George III (1853) I. 36 You will observe though..that this intended appointment has effectually stopped Franklin's mouth to me.
1784 C. Gadsden Writings (1966) 235 Continue here..until you have made up your mouth, (as the phrase is).
1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans I. x. 144 Enough... Go, and keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it will be the time to answer.
1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest I. xiii. 241 I stopped his mouth by telling him that [etc.].
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch IV. lxix. 113 He had told nobody anything, he had kept his mouth shut.
1895 R. Pocock Rules of Game 1 (Farmer) ‘Shut your mouth’, he said, ‘or I'll knife you!’
1897 J. Conrad Nigger of ‘Narcissus’ ii. 24 Keep your mouth shut when your elders speak, you impudent young heathen.
1933 A. G. Macdonell England, their England vi. 82 You can keep your mouth shut. Good man.
1938 G. Greene Brighton Rock i. i. 8 ‘Christ,’ the boy said, ‘won't anybody stop that buer's mouth?’
1989 B. Head Tales Tenderness & Power (1990) 17 I just bored myself to death and I assumed that I would bore others too so I shut my mouth pretty quick about what I had written.
1991 R. R. McCammon Boy's Life i. i. 17 Now you do what I tell you and keep your smart mouth shut!
†e. with full (also open) mouth: loudly, aloud; indiscreetly. Cf. full-mouth adv. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > quality of voice > [adverb] > with raised voice or loudly
loud971
highc1225
on highc1225
highlyc1275
mainlyc1300
with full (also open) mouthc1300
alouda1325
greatly1340
ahigha1400
loudlya1400
on or upon heightc1405
on, upon (the) loftc1420
on loudc1450
in heightc1480
big1556
to the loudesta1616
full-mouthedly1681
in loud1682
stentoriously1685
trumpet-mouthed1767
at the top of one's throat1819
at the top of one's throat1819
out loud1821
stentorianly1880
c1300 St. Faith (Laud) 93 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 86 (MED) Loude he gradde with folle Mouth.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 4442 (MED) Y þat neuer on boke couþe, Alle y hyt red with opun mouþe.
1472 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 582 My modyr hathe herd of that mater by the reporte of old Wayte, whyche rennyth on it wyth opyn mowthe in hys werst wyse.
1539 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Prouerbes sig. E.vii The fryer..ragynge oute with open mouthe lyke a madde man agaynste the lyfe of princes.
1572 R. Harrison tr. L. Lavater Of Ghostes i. vii. 36 Those things which they chaunted vpon with open mouth.
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V i. ii. 230 Eyther our Chronicles shal with full mouth speak Freely of our acts, Or else like toonglesse mutes Not worshipt with a paper Epitaph.
1606 P. Holland tr. Suetonius Hist. Twelve Caesars 238 Others called him with open mouth Incendiarie [margin Or firebrand because he burnt the Capitoll].
f. by († the) mouth: orally, by means of spoken words; by word of mouth (see word of mouth n. 1a). Now rare.
ΚΠ
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 249 (MED) He [sc. the Devil] asaylede þane uerste man be þe mouþe.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 299 (MED) Bi letter & bi mouth he praied þam of socoure.
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 131 (MED) He wold send wurd for hym be mowthe.
c1500 (?a1475) Assembly of Gods (1896) 2060 (MED) For slowthe, that I had left hit vntolde, Nowthyr by mowthe nor in remembraunce Put hit in wrytyng.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxix Commaunding thee..to declare what thou wilte do herein, by mouthe, and not by writynge.
1623 H. Cockeram Eng. Dict. Catechize, to instruct by mouth.
1738 D. Waterland Christian Sacrifice Explained App. 59 In Baptism..we represent and commemorate mentally, vocally, and manually, (in Mind, and by Mouth, and by significant Actions) the Death and Burial of Christ our Lord.
1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl Shooting ix. 157 I like ‘calling by mouth’ much better than with a ‘squawker’, especially if the ducks are passing reasonably close.
1923 T. E. Lawrence Let. 27 Mar. (1938) 413 You have tried (Round Tabling and by mouth) to tell all whom you can reach.
g. to put words into a person's mouth and variants: (a) to tell a person what to say; (b) to represent a person as having uttered (words or statements specified or unspecified). to take the words (also †tales) out of a person's mouth: to anticipate what a person is about to say.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > antecedence or being earlier > occur earlier or go before [verb (intransitive)] > act in advance or anticipate > anticipate what someone was about to say
to take the words (also tales) out of a person's mouth1530
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) 2 Kings xiv. 3 Joab forsoþe putte the woordes in hir mouth.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 751/1 It is no good maner to take the worde out of my mouthe, or I have made an ende of my tale.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 100 The Pope..takyng their wordes out of their mouthes, sayd [etc.].
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. vii. 41 Tis not well done to take the tale out Of a mans mouth, ere it is made an end.
1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (2 Pet. iii. 16) When we put words into the mouths of these oracles by mis-inferences or mis-applications.
1725 A. Pope Wks. Shakespear I. Pref. p. xix Many speeches also were put into the mouths of wrong persons, where the Author now seems chargeable with making them speak out of character.
1751 E. Moore Gil Blas iv. 70 All we know of the Matter is from Scoundrel Postboys and lying Inn-keepers—And then, Sir, you were forc'd to put Words into their Mouths.
1863 A. Trollope Rachel Ray I. xv. 306 Mrs. Rowan, as she again took the words out of her friend's mouth, smiled upon her with a smile of great efficacy.
1870 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (ed. 2) I. App. 627 The strong legitimist harangue which is put into his mouth by Richer.
1957 Listener 6 Aug. 218/1 Mr. Holden certainly took the words right out of my mouth when he asked one of them: ‘What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?’
1973 D. Shannon No Holiday iv. 43 ‘After all, it was—’ ‘To take the words out of your mouth, broad daylight,’ said Hackett.
1981 M. West Clowns of God i. 29 Don't put the words in my mouth, Carl!
h. (to be) in the mouth of a person and variants: (to be) in a person's speech or conversation, to be on a person's lips. Formerly also: †to have something (also someone) in mouth (obsolete).
ΚΠ
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 4136 (MED) Fra your scending be mad cuth, All men sal yow haue in mouth.
c1440 S. Scrope tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (St. John's Cambr.) (1970) 20 Man scholde haue in his mouthe the trouthe of the verray knyghte Ihesu Crist.
a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 45/1 It redowneth greatelye to the dishonoure..of the kinges highnesse..to haue it runne in euery mans mouth..that the Kynges brother shoulde bee fayne to keepe Saynctuarye.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 242v Which sayinge was afterwarde in euery mans mouth.
1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 13 All man hes this word reformatioun in mothe.
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. ii. 188 Yong Arthurs death is common in their mouths . View more context for this quotation
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 447. ¶1 A Common-Saying..we often hear in the Mouths of the Vulgar.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xv. 505 The names of..the..chiefs of the conquering army, were in many mouths.
1909 D. Houston 'E Silkie Man (1935) 14 If we dinna finish 'ir [harvesting] 'iss week, we'll be e' mooth e' pairish.
1928 A. Huxley Point Counter Point xxix. 478 It amused him to hear the cast-off locutions of duchesses in the mouth of this ageing prostitute.
1963 T. Ware Orthodox Church viii. 165 It is not without reason that the expressions ‘Soviet Church’ and ‘Soviet Patriarch’ have now become common in the mouth of Russians.
1993 Spy Nov. 34/1 The kind of lunch-bucket wisdom more frequently found in newspaper columns than in the mouths of actual New Yorkers.
i. from mouth to mouth: from one speaker to another; (also) speaking in turn or in succession.
ΚΠ
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame 2076 Thus north and south Wente every tydyng fro mouth to mouth.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan Rev. & Concl. 395 Such Opinions as are taken onely upon Credit of Antiquity, are..but Words that passe (like gaping) from mouth to mouth.
1727–41 E. Chambers Cycl. at Pass-parole A command given in the head of an army, and thence communicated to the rear, by passing it from mouth to mouth.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxx. 292 The stories they invent..and bandy from mouth to mouth!
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess Prol. 10 We..often told a tale from mouth to mouth As here at Christmas.
1905 Baroness Orczy Scarlet Pimpernel xii. 116 There he stood..surrounded by a crowd of brainless, empty-headed young fops, who were even now repeating from mouth to mouth..a doggerel couplet which he had just given forth.
1993 M. Atwood Robber Bride lvi. 457 The story of Zenia is insubstantial, ownerless, a rumour only, drifting from mouth to mouth and changing as it goes.
j. from the mouth of a person and variants: from the person specified as speaker; directly from the person specified chiefly as the originator of a statement, suggestion, etc., or as best able to bear witness to a certain state of affairs, etc. in the mouth of a person: by the spoken testimony of the person specified, in the opinion of, according to, as interpreted by (also figurative) (now rare). in (also with) a French (English, etc.) mouth: when spoken by a person of French (English, etc.) nationality (sometimes with reference to pronunciation). it does not lie in a person's mouth to and variants: it does not befit the person specified to (say something). out of one's own mouth [compare Luke 19:22] : by one's own evidence.
ΚΠ
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 68 The law sais, jn the mouth of twa or thre personis all word suld be trowit.
a1500 Gospel of Nicodemus (Harl. 149) f. 268v (MED) Oure lawe seyth that, yn the mowthe of two wytnesses, alle þe lawe ys beleued.
1583 Sir T. Smith's De Republica Anglorum ii. xxiii. 82 That all men may heare from the mouth of the depositors and witnesses what is saide.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. iii. 151 And for whose death, we in the worlds wide mouth Liue scandaliz'd. View more context for this quotation
1611 Bible (King James) Luke xix. 22 Out of thine owne mouth will I iudge thee. View more context for this quotation
1614 W. Bradshaw Unreasonableness Separation (1640) 56 Why may not preaching [etc.]..be sufficient to argue our ministers to be true pastors and teachers, notwithstanding that in the mouth of the Law, they are sometimes called Priests and Deacons.
1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. II. 77 I will come and learne from your owne mouth, all the particulars.
1644 J. Milton Of Educ. 4 To smatter Latin with an english mouth, is as ill a hearing as law French.
1645 J. Winthrop Declar. Former Passages 3 When the English out of his owne mouth found him guilty, and would have sent him to Uncas his Sagamore Miantonimo earnestly desired he might not be taken out of his hands.
1653 H. More Conjectura Cabbalistica Pref. sig. A6v The Jewish Cabbala is conceived to be a Traditional Doctrine or Exposition of the Pentateuch which Moses received from the mouth of God.
1703 J. Hay (title) Self-Condemnation: or the author of the second edition of the Debate in the Shop, condemned out of his own mouth.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 239. ⁋3 Socrates..would ask his Adversary Question upon Question, till he had convinced him out of his own Mouth that his Opinions were wrong.
1720 D. Defoe Mem. Cavalier 41 I had the Relation from his own Mouth.
1781 W. Cowper Table Talk 500 Hence, in a Roman mouth, the graceful name Of prophet and of poet was the same.
1813 T. Jefferson Let. 12 Oct. in Writings (1984) 1302 Their Platonising successors..found it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken their principles from the mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers contemporary with them.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xi, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. II. 250 It..usually happens that these declarations become the means of condemning the accused, as it were, out of their own mouths.
1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth i, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. II. 40 My princely nephew entertains with so much suspicion any admonition coming from my mouth.
1845 M. Pattison in Christian Remembrancer Jan. 76 The Frank..learned..his faith from the mouth of the Roman priest.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Merlin & Vivien 644 in Idylls of King How, in the mouths of base interpreters..Is thy white blamelessness accounted blame!
1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. III. ii. 44 It did not lie in his mouth to be curious on the subject.
1873 A. Trollope Eustace Diamonds III. lxxii. 250 Though they had heard so much from her own mouth, they knew no more than they had known before.
1874 A. Trollope Lady Anna I. xxiii. 297 Those fine sentiments..had occurred to her before she heard them from the mouth of Miss Alice Bluestone.
1879 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 3rd Ser. iii. 112 In other mouths Rousseau's sentiment..became unequivocally misanthropical.
1885 R. Churchill Speech (1889) I. 245 Does it lie in the mouth of members of that Government to taunt the Tory party with having no policy?
1906 J. London White Fang v. v. 325 Judge Scott surveyed them triumphantly. ‘Out of your own mouths be it,’ he said.
1988 Times 1 Mar. 39/2 The submission for the defendants lay ill in the mouth of those who..had spread the news nationwide for their own personal profit.
1990 J. Rogers Her Living Image (BNC) 140 She's condemned out of her own mouth.
1990 F. Fyfield Trial by Fire (1991) iii. 41 The confidences that had poured unbidden from her own mouth and into Helen's ears were rewarded by confidences in return.
k. regional (Scottish and U.S.) and Irish English. to make a poor mouth: to plead poverty, to complain. Also to put on (also up) a poor mouth.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > poverty > be poor [verb (intransitive)] > plead poverty
mitch1611
to make a poor mouth1753
to cry (also play, talk, etc.) poor-mouth1868
poor-mouth1930
to put on (also plead, etc.) the béal bocht1960
1753 C. O'Connor Diss. Antient Hist. Irel. iv. 51 Ceasnugbadh, what we vulgarly call making a poor Mouth.
1822 J. Galt in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Sept. 307/1 I'm sure ye may weel spare twa three pounds... It's no right o' you to be aye making a puir mouth.
1839 Wilson's Hist. Tales Borders V. 19 I dinna want to be plagued wi' folk makin puir mouths.
1885 W. D. Howells Rise Silas Lapham xxv You wanted to..make a poor mouth to Mrs. Lapham.
1892 ‘M. Twain’ Amer. Claimant iii. 37 Any selfish tramp..can come and put up a poor mouth.
1919 G. B. Shaw Heartbreak House iii, in Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, & Playlets of War 93 Alfred, Alfred: you are making a poor mouth of it to get out of marrying Ellie.
1923 G. Rae Lowland Hills 48 It isna them wha mak the puirest mooth, That are the honest puir.
1934 W. W. Gill Manx Dial. ii. 90 A ‘poor mouth’..is often a very vigorous member. To ‘put a poor mouth on’ one's affairs..is to complain excessively.
1949 F. Urquhart Ferret was Abraham's Daughter i. vii. 26 ‘Charity!’ Bert shouted. ‘Aye puttin' on a poor mouth.’
l. to give something mouth: to express something with vehemence. to give mouth to: to express in words; to utter. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speak, say, or utter [verb (transitive)] > give expression to
sayOE
talkc1275
soundc1386
outc1390
shedc1420
utterc1445
conveya1568
discharge1586
vent1602
dicta1605
frame1608
voice1612
pass?1614
language1628
ventilate1637
to give venta1640
vend1657
clothe1671
to take out1692
to give mouth to1825
verbalize1840
to let out1853
vocalize1872
1825 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 703/2 Thof, thinking mayhap 'twas the way to promotion, I gave all the mouth to it I could, hang me if the ever a nearer I got to you.
1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge lxv. 317 What I say in respect to the speeches always is, ‘Give it mouth’.
1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. ii. vii. 230 I have an opinion of you, sir, to which it is not easy to give mouth.
1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I Am xxi Give it mouth, boys.
1904 J. London Sea-wolf iii. 33 Every minute or so the group of hunters gave mouth to a laughter that sounded to me like a wolf-chorus.
m. colloquial. to be all mouth (also to be all mouth and (no) trousers [compare gas and gaiters at gas n.1 and adj. Phrases 1b] ): to engage (habitually) in empty or boastful talk, to bluster. mouth and trousers: an instance of such talk or behaviour.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > boasting or boastfulness > boast [verb (intransitive)] > have a tendency towards boasting
to be all moutha1961
the mind > emotion > pride > impudence > be or become impudent [verb (intransitive)] > use impudent language > have tendency towards
to be all moutha1961
1955 R. Galton & A. Simpson Hancock's Half-hour (1987) 47 Smarmy he is. Look at him. All teeth and trousers.]
a1961 Time in Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (1961) (at cited word) He is not all mouth..he gets results.
1961 L. P. Hartley Two for River 49 It's not a bad life. Most men are all mouth and trousers—well, I like the trousers best, if you know what I mean.
1966 T. Frisby There's Girl in my Soup i. 15 I can't stand her. All mouth and trousers.
1986 T. Barling Smoke ix. 174 ‘You'll cough,’ said Quill. ‘You've got more chance of growing a second navel,’ Vinnie hissed. ‘Mouth and trousers,’ Quill said and made fists.
1986 City Limits 12 June 10 You're mouth man. All mouth.
1987 Sunday Times 23 Aug. 7/1 Nor does it have a lot to say, unlike the lady herself, who as every film critic knows, is all mouth and no trousers.
1999 S. Perera Haven't stopped dancing Yet xii. 161 Martin thinks he's got investors in Bahrain who're gagging for property, but Luxy's all mouth.
P2. (Relating to sense 2.)
†a. to make up the mouth: to end a meal with something especially delicious. Also figurative. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue i. xi. sig. Eiii His wyfe to make vp my mouthe, Not onely her husbands tauntyng tale auouthe, But therto deuiseth to cast in my teeth, Checks and chokyng oysters.
1549 H. Latimer 1st Serm. before Kynges Grace sig. Dvii Surueiers the to be yt gredily gorge vp their couituse guttes,..honest men I touche not, but al such as so suruai thei make vp their mouthes, but the commens be vtterlye vndon by them.
1584 T. Cogan Hauen of Health clxxxix. 148 Commonly at great feastes..they use to serue vp sturgion last as it were to make up the mouth.
1640 Bp. J. Hall Christian Moderation ii. 75 He..to make up his mouth, shall goe away with an opinion of an hundred severall foule errors in Iohn Calvin.
1720 Lady Cowper Diary (1864) 153 Walpole [is] to make up his Mouth by a Bubble, because he did not get enough in South Sea.
b. to make a person's mouth water: to make a person salivate in anticipation of food; (figurative) to fill a person with pleasurable anticipation or desire. Cf. water v. 7.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > have (good) appetite [verb (intransitive)] > excite appetite
to make a person's mouth watera1586
to set a person's teeth on water1591
the world > life > the body > secretory organs > action or process of secreting > secreting spec. > [verb (transitive)] > secrete saliva
to make a person's mouth watera1586
the world > life > the body > secretory organs > action or process of secreting > secreting spec. > [verb (intransitive)] > secrete saliva > flow in mouth
to make a person's mouth watera1586
the teeth water1600
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. f. 287v For the bosse [of the bit]..a cluster of grapes, by the workeman made so liuely, that it seemed, as the horse champed on his bitte, he chopped for them, and that it did make his mouth water, to see the grapes so neere him.
1676 tr. A. Thevet Prosopographia (new ed.) 76 in T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (new ed.) The Mountains of Gold also..made his [sc. Cortez's] mouth water.
1739 H. Baker & J. Miller tr. Molière Amorous Quarrel v. ix, in Molière Wks. I. 335 A Gallant should be well made enough to make one's Mouth water.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. i. 362 The sight of a company sitting down before a plentiful meal will presently make the mouth water to be doing the like.
1813 J. Austen Let. 25 Sept. (1995) 229 Rostock Market makes one's mouth water, our cheapest Butcher's meat is double the price of theirs.
1843 R. S. Surtees Handley Cross II. xi. 283 All the delicacies of the season in short, that make one's mouth water to write.
1860 P. H. Gosse Romance Nat. Hist. 274 He has drawn a picture..such as makes a brother naturalist's mouth water.
1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage lxviii. 348 Macalister..told him what fortunes he could have made if he had bought certain stock at certain times. It made Philip's mouth water... It would have suited him very well to make a little money.
1956 G. Durrell Drunken Forest 226 I led her round the cages again and pointed out the specimens, some of which were so unusual that they made my mouth water just to look at them.
1990 Edgebrook (Chicago) Times Rev. 5 Dec. a25/2 If the idea of saving money on eating out makes your mouth water, our early dinner's for you.
c. another mouth to feed and variants: another dependant, esp. a child, to be provided for.
ΚΠ
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby li. 506 We must be very careful; more saving than ever with another mouth to feed.
1873 A. Trollope Eustace Diamonds I. ix. 116 Mutton that before cost ninepence, would cost tenpence a pound, and the mouths to be fed would demand more meat.
1953 A. Hosain Phoenix Fled 27 Kalloo grumbled: ‘One more mouth to feed. And will I be given enough stores?’
1961 ‘W. Cooper’ Scenes Married Life iii. i. 142 We were hoping to have children. In the long-term future more and more mouths to feed.
1982 P. Thane Found. Welfare State iii. 56 There is little evidence that such poverty did decline in this period; indeed the survival of more mouths to feed may have increased it.
d. U.S. colloquial and regional. to have one's mouth made up for and variants: to anticipate eating (a particular kind of food) with pleasure. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > expectation, waiting > wait, await [verb (intransitive)] > for particular food
to have one's mouth made up for1859
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > have (good) appetite [verb (intransitive)] > have appetite for specific kind of food
to have one's mouth made up for1859
1859 Student & Schoolmate Aug. 148 (Mathew's Coll.) We lost the ‘mackerel steak’ for which some of the excursionists had made up their mouths.
1890 Cent. Dict. at Mouth His mouth was made up for a chicken salad.
1890 Harper's Mag. Oct. 715/2 No one who has his mouth made up for a laugh is prepared to relish a dose of reason.
1929 Amer. Speech 5 129 ‘My mouth was all made up for’ whatever one greatly wanted and expected to eat.
1960 E. H. Criswell Response to Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 20 Well, I had my mouth all set for some of that sweet potato pie, and then I couldn't go to the dinner.
†e. colloquial. to open one's mouth wide: to ask a high price. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > monetary value > price > high price or rate > [verb (intransitive)] > ask high price
to open one's mouth wide1891
1891 C. Roberts Adrift in Amer. 251 To use a vulgarism, he did not open his mouth so wide as the other, but at once offered me a through ticket to Liverpool for $72.
1898 Daily News 28 Oct. 3/1 Directly the word England is mentioned, the mouths of the Continental artists are opened so unconscionably wide.
P3. (Relating to sense 1c.)
a. to make a (wry, ugly, hard, etc.) mouth (also mouths): to make a face, esp. to express disapproval, derision, etc., by a grimace or other facial distortion; (of an animal) to menace with the mouth; (figurative) to refuse to believe or accept. Also with at, upon.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [verb (intransitive)] > grimace with
to make a (wry, ugly, hard, etc.) mouth (also mouths)1551
mump1577
1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia i. sig. Ei And as he was thus saying he shaked his heade, & made a wrie mouth.
1579 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 69 Me thinkes I see the make a mowthe At certayne Tuscane brave conceites.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. ii. 239 Counterfait sad lookes: Make mouthes vpon mee, when I turne my back: Winke each at other. View more context for this quotation
1681 T. Otway Souldiers Fortune ii. i. 19 I desire you to..make ugly mouths, laugh aloud, and look back at me.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 481. ¶3 They say he's a warm Man, and does not care to be made Mouths at.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. xi. 58 He made at times so many different mouths of contempt, that I thought it was impossible for the same features to express them.
1797 R. Cumberland tr. Aristophanes Clouds 87 Mark how the ideot quibbles upon hanging, Driv'ling and making mouths.
1868 R. Browning Ring & Bk. II. iv. 7 How long, now, would the roughest marketman..Harass a mutton ere she made a mouth Or menaced biting?
1870 ‘F. Fern’ Ginger-snaps 231 I find that nobody makes mouths at you for being a Unitarian, or an Episcopalian.
1928 J. Buchan Runagates Club xii. 329 ‘Shall we exchange?’ Leithen asked. She made a mouth. ‘Borrowby would crush me.’
1967 T. Keneally Bring Larks xv. 121 He could safely raise an eyebrow or make a mouth at Mr Blythe's image.
†b. to run into another's mouth: to meet another face to face or full face (also figurative); also to meet another in the mouth. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement towards a thing, person, or position > meeting or encounter > meet or encounter [verb (intransitive)] > specifically of people > face to face
to meet another in the mouth1608
to run into another's mouth1608
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xi. 11 Thoud'st shun a Beare, But if thy flight lay toward the roring sea, Thoud'st meet the beare it'h mouth. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iii. vii. 139 Foolish Curres, that runne winking into the mouth of a Russian Beare. View more context for this quotation
1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1522 Best keep together here, lest running thither We unawares run into dangers mouth. View more context for this quotation
1737 W. Whiston tr. Josephus Jewish War iii. x, in tr. Josephus Genuine Wks. 672 So Titus pressed upon the hindmost, and slew them;..and some he prevented, and met them in the mouth; and run them through.
1764 S. Foote Lyar ii. 20 Gad, I had like to have run into the old gentleman's mouth.
c. down in (rarely of) the mouth: having the corners of the mouth turned downwards, as a sign of dissatisfaction, etc.; dejected, dispirited. Also down-at-mouth (rare), down-at-the-mouth.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [adjective]
ungladc888
wearyc888
drearyc1000
dreary-moodOE
heavyc1000
unmerryOE
droopy?c1225
mournc1275
sada1300
languishinga1325
amayedc1330
matec1330
unlightc1330
unblissful1340
lowa1382
mishappyc1390
dullc1393
elengely1393
droopinga1400
heavy-hearteda1400
joylessa1400
sytefula1400
mornifc1400
tristy?c1400
lightless?1406
heartlessa1413
tristc1420
amatec1425
languoring?c1425
mirthlessc1430
heavisome1435
darkc1440
gloomingc1440
comfortlessc1460
amateda1470
chermatc1475
tristfula1492
lustless?1507
dolorous1513
ruthful1513
downcast1521
deject1528
heartsicka1529
lumpisha1535
coolc1540
dowlyc1540
glum1547
discouraged1548
uncheerfulc1555
dumpish1560
out of heart1565
sadded1566
amoped1573
tristive1578
desolated1580
dejected1581
à la mort1586
delightless1589
afflicted1590
gladless1590
groanful1590
gloomya1593
muddy1592
sitheful1592
cloudy1594
leaden-hearted1596
disconsolated1598
clum1599
life-weary1599
spiritless1600
dusky1602
chop-fallen1604
flat1604
disanimated1605
jaw-fallen1605
moped1606
chap-fallen1608
decheerful1608
uncheerful1612
lacklustrea1616
pulled1616
dumpya1618
depressed1621
head-hung1632
grum1640
downa1644
dispirited1647
down-at-mouth1649
down in (rarely of) the mouth1649
unhearted1650
sunlessa1658
sadful1658
unlightened1659
chagrin1665
saddened1665
damp1667
moping1674
desponding1688
tristitious1694
unenjoying1697
unraised1697
unheartya1699
unked1698
despondent1699
dismal1705
unjoyful1709
unrejoiced1714
dreara1717
disheartened1720
mumpish1721
unrejoicing1726
downhearted1742
out of spirits1745
chagrineda1754
low-spirited1753
sombrea1767
black-blooded1771
glumpy1780
oorie1787
sombrous1789
morose1791
Novemberish1793
glumpish1800
mopeful1800
die-away1802
blue-devilish1804
blue-devilled1807
malagrugrous1818
down in the hip1826
yonderly1828
sunshineless1831
downfaced1832
broody1851
in a (or the) trough1856
blue-devilly1871
drooped1873
glummy1884
pippy1886
humpy1889
pipped1914
lousy1933
pissed1943
crappy1956
doomy1961
bummed1970
1649 Bp. J. Hall Resol. & Decisions i. vi. 57 The Roman Orator was downe in the mouth; finding himselfe thus cheated by the mony-changer.
1694 P. A. Motteux Wks. F. Rabelais (1737) v. 224 You are damnably down o' the Mouth.
1764 S. Foote Patron iii. 68 Poor lad! he will be most horribly down in the mouth: a little comfort won't come amiss.
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas III. viii. vi. 288 What is the matter with you, Signor de Santillane? said they at the sight of me. You are quite down in the mouth! Has anything untoward happened?
a1850 D. G. Rossetti Dante & Circle (1874) i. 224 He'll never more be down-at-mouth, but fill His beak at his own beck.
1891 E. A. Freeman in Life & Lett. (1895) II. 426 I got down-in-the-mouth yesterday.
1961 S. Price Just for Record (1962) 91 For all his down-at-the-mouth personality Robin was pretty smart.
1988 Salmon, Trout & Sea-trout June 25/2 More tragically, many of the early fish are tainted by disease, and I always feel down in the mouth when I land one blotched with the marks of UDN.
d. to laugh on the other (also wrong) side of one's mouth: see laugh v. Phrases 1g(a); also to laugh out of wrong side of one's mouth, to sing (out of or at) the wrong side of one's mouth.
ΚΠ
1761 Brit. Mag. 2 498 They'll quick make you sing the wrong side of your mouth.
1845 M. J. E. Sue Wandering Jew xi. vii. 351/1 ‘They like to sing in their Common House,’ cried Ciboule; ‘we will make them sing at the wrong side of their mouths, in the key of “Oh, dear me!”’
1959 B. Comyns Vet's Daughter xi. 98 Her brothers used to call her the ‘singing mouse’, among other silly pet-names; but I soon made her sing out of the wrong side of her mouth.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.
(a) With the sense ‘of or relating to the mouth, that is a mouth’.
mouth aperture n.
ΚΠ
1877 Globe Encycl. III. 170/2 at Gasteropoda The mouth aperture may be unindented..or indented by a groove for the passage of a breathing-siphon.
1880 Amer. Naturalist 14 15 The mouth aperture is widely distended, and the offending substance is thrown out of the body.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. x. 179 At the lower pole [of the sea-urchin] there is the large circle of the peristome, so much larger than the mouth aperture by itself.
1953 K. Jackson Lang. & Hist. in Early Brit. 573 The degree of mouth-aperture.
1988 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 234 263 The calculated pressure inside the mouth cavity is independent of radial position, except very near the mouth aperture.
mouth articulation n.
ΚΠ
1934 J. J. Hogan Outl. Eng. Philol. 6 The nasal consonants n and m are stops in their mouth-articulation, opens in their nasality.
1996 Film Q. Spring 27 Computer modelling of synthetic visual speech and facial animation relies on existing microanalyses of human facial expression and phonetic mouth articulations.
mouth cavity n.
ΚΠ
1868 N. Amer. Rev. July 351 It is..evident that the throat and mouth cavity, upward..from the vocal chords, form a kind of tube or pipe.
1877 H. Sweet Primer Phonetics §36. 13 Rounding,..a contraction of the mouth cavity by lateral compression of the cheek passage and narrowing of the lip aperture, whence the older name labialization.
1924 R. M. Ogden tr. K. Koffka Growth of Mind iii. 132 The most primitive phenomena are figural; as examples..the too cold or too warm milk in contrast with the temperature level of the mouth-cavity.
1991 A. Milne Fate of Dinosaurs (BNC) 114 John Ostrom points out that most dinosaur nasal passages bypassed the mouth cavity, so chewing could be done without breathing.
mouth gesture n.
ΚΠ
1895 A. R. Wallace in Fortn. Rev. Oct. 528 (title) The expressiveness of speech, or, mouth-gesture as a factor in the origin of language.
1930 R. Paget Babel 60 Making the same mouth-gesture.
1977 G. W. Hewes in D. M. Rumbaugh Lang. Learning by Chimpanzee i. 48 Sound-symbolism may be explicable on the basis of mouth-gesture.
1988 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 26 Mar. 7 Smith's brother..also was arrested Friday and accused of trying to warn others ‘by hand signals and mouth gestures’.
mouth-gymnastics n.
ΚΠ
1921 H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-study 89 We must go through a course of mouth-gymnastics.
mouth-heat n.
ΚΠ
1942 W. Faulkner Go down, Moses & Other Stories 103 Not even warmed from mouth-heat.
mouth-hole n.
ΚΠ
1683 J. Pettus tr. L. Ercker i. iii. 10 in Fleta Minor i. Leave in the sides [of the assay-oven] Wind-holes, and in the fore-part leave also a Mouth-hole.
1770 J. Smeaton Rep. Late John Smeaton (1797) I. 263 The windows may..be placed..nearer the pipe mouth-holes.
1883 Cent. Mag. Feb. 506/1 Their faces were covered by horrible, ghastly, white masks, with square, black eye and mouth-holes.
1976 Early Music 4 461/2 The greatest external diameter is in the region of the mouth-hole, and the tube gently narrows above and below this point.
1993 R. Rankin Bk. of Ultimate Truths (BNC) 78 I've had him put in a strait-jacket and one of those leather masks with the little bars over the mouth hole.
mouth papilla n.
ΚΠ
1871 Illustr. Catal. Mus. Compar. Zool. at Harvard Coll. VI. 12 Outside each mouth-papilla stands the thick, club-like tentacle-scale of the first mouth-tentacle.
1876 J. H. Kidder Nat. Hist. Kerguelen Islands ii. 74 This species..[of Echinoderm] differs widely..in the characters of the mouth-papillæ and mouth-shields.
1914 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 205 56 Still further ventrally a row of teeth seems to have been borne by the jaw proper..at the side of the oral angle (mouth papillæ).
1992 Marine Ecol. Progress Ser. 88 293 The secondary mouth papillae of the oral arms of P[hyllorhiza] punctata.
mouth passage n.
ΚΠ
1892 Mod. Lang. Notes 7 75/2 (note) The quality of the sound..is determined by the place where the mouth passage is closed.
1964 C. Barber Ling. Change Present-day Eng. iii. 47 This [l] is a lateral consonant: to produce it, you press the tip of the tongue against the teeth-ridge, thus blocking the centre of the mouth-passage.
1982 B. Seaton Handbk. Eng. Lang. Teaching Terms & Pract. (BNC) 37 In all nasal consonants, the soft palate is lowered and at the same time the mouth passage is blocked at some point, so that all the air is pushed out of the nose.
mouth rim n.
ΚΠ
1924 Man 24 152 The mouth [of the bag] is sewn (looped) up through the lowest loops, and the seam at the same time overlaid with loop netting in the same way as the mouth rim.
1933 Burlington Mag. June 265/1 It was customary to bind the mouth-rims of bowls and dishes with metal.
1980 Catal. Fine Chinese Ceramics (Sotheby, Hong Kong) 32 Fired upside down in the usual manner, leaving the mouthrim unglazed.
1988 Times 31 Dec. 38/7 The Prussian-type decanter made by Penrose of Waterford has..a mushroom stopper with radial fluting, fitting into a wide mouth rim.
mouth shield n.
ΚΠ
1871 Illustr. Catal. Mus. Compar. Zool. at Harvard Coll. VI. 10 Mouth-shields irregular, sometimes in form only of a small swelling.
1876 J. H. Kidder Nat. Hist. Kerguelen Islands ii. 74 This species..[of Echinoderm] differs widely..in the characters of the mouth-papillæ and mouth-shields.
1903 Biometrika 2 473 To all appearance more than one mouth-shield may be capable of performing the function of a madreporic plate.
1960 Monumenta Nipponica 16 95 (note) An oriental barber who knows his manners will wear a mouth-shield while attending to his tonsorial business.
1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 21 Aug. a1 The guidelines also urge medical personnel to use mouth shields when administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
mouth-sound n.
ΚΠ
1929 W. Faulkner Sartoris ii. i. 74 All the other mouth-sounds that stood for repose.
(b) With the sense ‘from the mouth only and not from the heart, insincere’.
† mouth-charity n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1692 R. South 12 Serm. I. 522 Why, then answers the Man of Mouth-Charity again, and tells you, That..he can give nothing, but he will be sure to pray for the poor Gentleman.
† mouth-friend n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) iii. vii. 88 May you a better Feast neuer behold You knot of Mouth-Friends . View more context for this quotation
† mouth-honour n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) v. iii. 29 Honor, Loue, Obedience..I must not looke to haue: but in their steed, Curses,..Mouth-honor . View more context for this quotation
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. v. 84/1 The Highest in rank, at length, without honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a little mouth-honour, as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in the bill.
1907 G. B. Shaw Major Barbara Pref. in John Bull's Other Island 157 The mouth-honor paid to poverty and obedience by rich and insubordinate do-nothings.
1933 Speculum 8 301 Let us think of other moral ideals of the Middle Ages... In no age were wisdom and learning paid more mouth-honor.
† mouth-love n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. xvii. sig. L4 Vowing..that neither hart, nor mouth-loue, should euer any more intangle him.
† mouth-mercy n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (1 John iii. 18) There is a great deal of mouth-mercy abroad.
(c) Designating a surgical instrument for the mouth.
mouth dilator n.
ΚΠ
1895 Catal. Surg. Instruments (Arnold & Sons) 217 Harelip, mouth and cleft palate instruments. Mouth Gag. Mouth Prop. Mouth Dilator. Mouth Retractor. Mouth Speculum.
mouth gag n.
ΚΠ
1895 Catal. Surg. Instruments (Arnold & Sons) 217 Harelip, mouth and cleft palate instruments. Mouth Gag. Mouth Prop. Mouth Dilator. Mouth Retractor. Mouth Speculum.
1969 Gloss. Terms Dentistry (B.S.I.) 28 Mouth gag, a two-handled, adjustable, jointed instrument inserted between the jaws, in order to open them during general anaesthesia.
1982 A. F. Wallace Progress Plastic Surg. xvi. 147 In 1910, S.J. Crowe..noticed in a catalogue of a Chicago instrument maker, a mouth gag with a tongue depressor attached, and appreciated that with adaption it could be an improvement on the mouth hook.
† mouth glass n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 253/2 Mouth glass, a small hand-mirror for inspecting the teeth and gums, &c.
mouth prop n.
ΚΠ
1895 Catal. Surg. Instruments (Arnold & Sons) 217 Harelip, mouth and cleft palate instruments. Mouth Gag. Mouth Prop. Mouth Dilator. Mouth Retractor. Mouth Speculum.
1911 Lancet 11 Nov. 1335/2 Insisting on the routine use in every administration of an anaesthetic of establishing an oral airway by means of a mouth-prop and tongue-clip.
1999 Exceptional Parent (Nexis) 1 Sept. 119 Mouth opening devices, such as mouth props, may be required along with physical support.
mouth retractor n.
ΚΠ
1895 Catal. Surg. Instruments (Arnold & Sons) 217 Harelip, mouth and cleft palate instruments. Mouth Gag. Mouth Prop. Mouth Dilator. Mouth Retractor. Mouth Speculum.
† mouth speculum n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1864 W. T. Helmuth Treat. Diphtheria (ed. 2) 99 Charriere has also constructed a mouth speculum on the principle of his well-known speculum vaginæ.
1895 Catal. Surg. Instruments (Arnold & Sons) 217 Harelip, mouth and cleft palate instruments. Mouth Gag. Mouth Prop. Mouth Dilator. Mouth Retractor. Mouth Speculum.
† mouth syringe n. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 427/1 A Mouth or Ear Syringe; so called, because used chiefly about those parts.
b. Objective.
mouth-embracing adj.
ΚΠ
1883 E. R. Lankester in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 674/1 The mouth-embracing foot [of a Nautilus].
mouth stopper n.
ΚΠ
1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie (new ed.) 3rd Serm. sig. Eviij (margin) A preacher offyce is to be a mouth stopper. But not to haue hys one mouthe stopped wyth a benefice or byshoprike.
1888 Harper's Mag. Nov. 924/1 It seems to me that I can distinctly recall..the loss of my thumb as a mouth-stopper.
1927 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 114 99 To investigate the distinction between p and b, a perforated mouth stopper was formed in plasticene and held between the lips.
c. Locative.
mouth-deep adv.
ΚΠ
1906 Daily Chron. 28 June 5/3 Two had to wade mouth-deep in water.
† mouth-high adv. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1707 P. A. Motteux Farewel Folly iii. 56 Advance your Glass Mouth-high.
1790 J. Fisher Poems Var. Subj. 66 I did awake—my heart yet loups Mouth high for fear.
mouth-shrivelled adj.
ΚΠ
1925 E. Blunden Eng. Poems 89 That old man, face like parchment tanned, Wrinkled, mouth-shrivelled.
d. Instrumental.
(a)
mouth-breathing n.
ΚΠ
1890 Trans. Odontol. Soc. 22 75 (heading) On nasal obstruction and mouth breathing as factors in the etiology of caries of the teeth.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. IV. 673 The difficulty in breathing through the nose leads to mouth-breathing.
1942 Science New Ser. 121 12/2 To prevent ‘mouth breathing’..a small celluloid mouthpiece can be held between the lips while the child is reading or studying.
1990 European Jrnl. Orthodontics 12 465/2 Mouth-breathing during the night has been described as a typical feature in individuals with large tonsils.
(b)
mouth-formed adj.
ΚΠ
1930 R. Paget Human Speech 111 A mouth-formed whistle.
C2.
mouth arm n. Zoology any of several elongated, usually frilled lobes surrounding the mouth in certain jellyfishes and involved in the capture and ingestion of prey.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Acalepha > member of (jelly-fish) > parts of > prolongation from mouth for catching prey
mouth arm1884
1884 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Dec. 411 The Melbourne specimens [of this medusa] possess mouth-arms which are deep purple throughout.
1951 G. C. Klingel Bay iv. 55 Beneath the umbrella, are four long crenulated veillike mouth arms.
1994 Undercurrents Summer 10/2 In many kinds of jellies, frilly ribbons of tissue—called mouth arms—surround the mouth and help carry food to it.
mouth-bearing adj. Zoology now rare having or developing a mouth; (of a protozoan) having a definite oral cavity.
ΚΠ
1875 H. A. Nicholson Text-bk. Zool. (ed. 2) 27 A rough and useful division is into mouth-bearing or ‘stomatode’ Protozoa..and mouthless or ‘astomatous’ Protozoa.
1879 H. N. Moseley Notes by Naturalist on ‘Challenger’ xx. 530 The ‘style’, a rod of the calcareous skeleton, which in many genera of Stylasteridæ acts as a support to the mouth-bearing polyp within its pore.
1915 E. R. Lankester Diversions of Naturalist x. 84 They [sc. sea-anemones] have..the shape of small ‘martello’ towers with their adhesive disk below and the mouth-bearing platform above.
1998 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95 3673/1 The animal pole of the egg gives rise to the posterior pole of the larva, which in turn gives rise to the mouth-bearing pole of the cnidarian polyp and to the head of the worm.
mouth-blower n. rare = mouth blowpipe n.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
ΚΠ
1890 Cent. Dict. Mouth-blower, a common blowpipe.
mouth-blown adj. blown with the mouth; now spec. in Glass-blowing.
ΚΠ
1902 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 32 173 The goura..is the form which would naturally be arrived at in altering the flat-stringed humming-bow from a wind-blown to a mouth-blown instrument.
1904 J. London Sea-wolf i. 3 The unseen ferry-boat was blowing blast after blast, and the mouth-blown horn was tooting in terror-stricken fashion.
1930 R. Paget Human Speech 231 A separate mouth-blown vowel or consonant resonator.
1992 Enroute (Air Canada) Nov. 59/1 Mouth-blown vase in available at Du Verre Glass Ltd. in Toronto.
mouth blowpipe n. now historical a blowpipe operated by the mouth, used esp. in chemistry or in scientific experiments.
ΚΠ
1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. iv. 109 The mouth blow-pipe.
1869 De Bow's Rev. July 546 Course of Chemistry Applied to the Arts.—To consist of: 1st. Elementary Mathematics; 2d. Linear drawing;..9th. The use of the mouth blow-pipe.
1890 Proc. Royal Soc. 1889–90 47 279 The ash was fusible, though with difficulty, before the mouth blow-pipe.
mouth-board n. rare a wooden instrument to which the mouth is applied, in order to secure a constant position of the head for observation, etc.
ΚΠ
1901 E. B. Titchener Exper. Psychol. I. ii. 245 Materials.—Head-rest, with mouth-board and sighting mark.
mouth-breeder n. = mouth brooder n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Siluriformes (catfish) > [noun] > member of family Ariidae (mouth-breeder)
mouth-breeder1927
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Percoidei > [noun] > family Cichlidae (cichlids) > member of (cichlid)
cichlid1914
mouth-breeder1927
discus1935
1927 Sunday at Home June 239/1 The mouth-breeder protects her eggs by carrying them about in her mouth.
1962 K. F. Lagler et al. Ichthyol. x. 301 Some African fishes, Tilapia, are called ‘mouth-breeders’ because the young when they are hatched escape at time of danger into the oral cavity of the female.
1992 New Scientist 29 May 45/3 Mouthbreeders—fish which hold eggs and young in their mouths—are able to distinguish their own offspring..by smell.
mouth-breeding adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Siluriformes (catfish) > [adjective] > of or relating to mouth-breeder
mouth-breeding1951
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Percoidei > [adjective] > of or relating to fish of family Cichlidae
cichlid1884
mouth-breeding1951
haplochromine1979
1951 Science 7 Dec. 608/2 (title) Reproductive behavior in the African mouth-breeding fish, Tilapia Macrocephala.
1974 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 5 398 The first [example of intraspecific deceit] concerns the use of ‘egg dummies’ by mouth-breeding African cichlids.
1991 R. S. K. Barnes & K. H. Mann Fund. Aquatic Ecol. (ed. 2) vi. 120/2 The lake was originally occupied by hundreds of species of cichlid (mouthbreeding) fishes.
mouth brooder n. any of various freshwater fishes of the families Cichlidae and Ariidae which protect their eggs, and sometimes their newly hatched offspring, by carrying them in the mouth.
ΚΠ
1970 J. Gilbert Freshwater Trop. Fishes 181 Genus Haplochromis is found in various parts of Africa and is known as a mouth-breeder or mouth-brooder.
1999 Sci. Amer. Feb. 47/2 The mouth brooders lay far fewer eggs than other fishes—sometimes no more than 10—and so invest much time and energy per offspring.
mouth-brooding adj. designating a type of fish that protects its eggs, and sometimes its newly hatched offspring, by carrying them in the mouth.
ΚΠ
1959 Evolution 13 448/2 One can at least be sure that they [sc. species of the Nyasa basin] are not mouth-brooding fishes.
1988 Guinness Bk. Records 1989 37/2 The mouth-brooding cichlid Tropheus moorii of Lake Tanganyika..produces 7 eggs or less during normal reproduction.
1992 Pract. Fishkeeping Mar. 16/3 Most of the Mbuna cichlids are mouthbrooding species.
† mouth canker n. Obsolete rare a sore or ulcer in the mouth; (also) a condition characterized by this, as gangrenous stomatitis.
ΚΠ
1615 G. Markham Eng. Hus-wife in Countrey Contentments ii. ii. 79 Treacle water for mouth cankers.
1892 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon at Mouth Mouth canker, a term for gangrenous stomatitis or Noma.
† mouth-case n. Entomology Obsolete rare the part of the cuticle of an insect pupa that covers the mouthparts.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
ΚΠ
1890 Cent. Dict. Mouth-case, in entom., that part of the integument of a pupa that covers the mouth.
† mouth-flying adj. Obsolete rare that evades the mouth.
ΚΠ
1625 T. May tr. J. Barclay in K. Long tr. J. Barclay Argenis v. i. 330 Condemn'd, like Tantalvs, with vaine pursuit To gape at water, and mouth-flying fruit.
† mouth-foot n. Zoology Obsolete = gnathopod n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > member of > parts of > organ for mastication
gnathopodite18..
mouth-foot1873
gnathopod1887
1873 A. S. Packard Our Common Insects 174 These originally soft mouth-feet would gradually harden at the extremities.
1882 Ogilvie's Imperial Dict. (new ed.) at Gnathopodite If the Trilobites have true walking legs instead of mouth-feet (gnathopodites) only, they would be more closely related to the Isopoda. Nature.
† mouth-footed adj. Zoology Obsolete provided with gnathopods.
ΚΠ
1871 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom (ed. 4) xiv. §1065. 448 The Stomapoda (Mouth-footed Crustaceans) are so called on account of the size and preponderant development of the jaw-feet.
1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 662/1 The sub-class Gnathopoda, ‘mouth-footed’.
† mouth-funnel n. Zoology Obsolete the funnel-shaped mouth of a rotifer.
ΚΠ
1862 Pop. Sci. Rev. 1 40 The mouth-funnel was well marked.
† mouth-gauge n. Obsolete rare a device for measuring the width of a horse's mouth, for the purpose of fitting a bit.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
ΚΠ
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1486/2 Mouth-gage (Saddlery), a device for measuring a horse's mouth.
mouth guard n. (a) a guard worn to protect the mouth of a worker in needle-manufacture (now rare); (b) Sport a protector for the mouth used by participants in various contact sports.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for making other articles > [noun] > needle-making equipment
reed machine1821
mouth guard1852
thumb-piece1891
1852 M. T. Morrall Hist. Needle-making (1862) 25 A mouth guard, which was approved of and found to answer when used by the needle pointers.
1954 Scholastic Coach Sept. 89/2 (advt.) Eliminate All Mouth-Teeth-Lip Injuries. A comfortable surgical rubber Mouth Guard that affords 100% protection.
1994 TaeKwonDo Times Apr. 70/1 The mouth..can be effectively protected by a properly fitting mouthguard.
† mouth-harness n. humorous Obsolete rare provisions of food.
ΚΠ
1653 T. Urquhart tr. F. Rabelais 1st Bk. Wks. xxxii. 147 We are here but badly victualled, and furnished with mouth-harnasse very slenderly.
mouth hook n. Entomology each of a pair of claw-like sclerites, one on either side of the mouth, that function as feeding apparatus in the larvae of dipterous flies of the division (or suborder) Cyclorrhapha.
ΚΠ
1935 R. E. Snodgrass Princ. Insect Morphol. xii. 313 In the higher cyclorrhaphous Diptera the usual mouth parts are entirely suppressed in the larval stage, and the only external feeding organs of the maggot are a pair of strong mouth hooks movable in a vertical plane.
1968 Times 17 Oct. 18/6 The larvae usually feed on the mucus in the nose or throat and are equipped with powerful mouth-hooks, which they use to scrape the mucus membrane and encourage it to secrete more freely.
1992 Independent 6 Jan. 1/2 Fruit-fly maggots jump by curling their bodies into a ball and gripping their posteriors tightly with a pair of curved mouth hooks.
mouth hoop n. Trapping the hoop forming the entrance to a decoy.
ΚΠ
1895 E. R. Suffling Land of Broads 28 The mouthhoop would be perhaps 5 yds. across.
mouth infection n. transmission of disease via the mouth; (also) an infection of the mouth.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > production of disease > [noun] > infection
infectinga1398
corruptionc1430
infection1548
infecture1580
contamination1599
smittling1625
zymosis1842
autoinfection1871
mouth infection1903
1903 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 14 Mar. 43 A paper on mouth infection.
1940 Science 20 Sept. 248/2 The collateral study of mouth infection of low virulence may..be expected to provide a fruitful approach to the whole question of natural resistance.
1991 N.Y. Times 14 Sept. 26/1 The girl often has fevers and the mouth infection common to people with AIDS called thrush.
† mouth-made adj. poetic Obsolete spoken without being sincerely meant.
ΚΠ
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) i. iii. 30 Those mouth-made vowes, Which breake themselues in swearing. View more context for this quotation
1850 S. Judd Philo 156 One tires of indications, mouth-made hopes, When need of action's so importunate.
mouth opening n. and adj. (a) n. the orifice of the mouth; (b) adj. (usually with hyphen), astonishing, amazing.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adjective]
wonderlyc893
wonderfula1100
wondera1175
wondersa1300
marvellousc1330
marvela1400
marvelly?a1400
mirablec1429
admirablec1450
marvellablec1450
mirific1490
wondrous1509
extonious1548
portentious1549
miraculous1569
geason1572
mirificalc1572
astounding1590
amazing1593
wonderedc1595
admiring1598
prodigious1600
astonishable1603
fabulous1609
wondered-at?1611
necromantic1627
stupendous1640
nigromantic1645
mirandous1652
surprising1665
mirabundous1694
astonishinga1704
wondersome1774
sublime1813
nasty1834
kill-me-quite1842
breathtaking1843
breath-catching1865
miracle-working1867
mouth opening1867
stupefying1870
gee whiz1889
scorching1890
doozy1903
sensational1909
eye-popping1918
wunnerful1924
crashing1931
staggering1934
eyewatering1950
mind-boggling1955
Ozymandian1961
knock-out1966
mind-blowing1966
motherfucking1973
boggling1975
gobsmacking1981
tubular1982
1867 A. S. Packard in Amer. Naturalist 1 78 During growth they [sc. appendages behind the mouth, and on each side] change their position, crowd forward about the mouth-opening, so as to lose nearly all traces of their normal succession.
1875 T. H. Huxley & H. N. Martin Course Elem. Biol. (1883) 208 Enlarge the mouth-opening.
1960 Guardian 3 May 7/7 A truly mouth-opening recording of Handel's ‘Messiah’.
1995 C. Nielsen Animal Evol. Gloss. 442 Blastopore, the mouth opening of the gastrula.
mouth pore n. †(a) Botany = stoma n. 2 (obsolete); (b) Zoology a simple pore that functions as a mouth in certain flatworms.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [noun] > tissue > epidermis or cuticle > stoma
spiraclea1774
stomate1835
stomatium1835
miliary gland1836
stoma1837
water pore1850
water stoma1884
mouth pore1888
1888 E. Clodd Story of Creation (1894) 72 The carbonic acid which the plant absorbs through the numberless stomata or mouth-pores in its leaves or integuments.
1959 Amer. Midland Naturalist 61 266 Genital and mouth pores do not open into a common cavity.
1995 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 261 15/2 The persistence of a simple mouth pore..limits nutrient uptake and hence body size.
† mouth provision n. Obsolete rare provisions of food, esp. for an expedition.
ΚΠ
1746 Rep. Conduct Sir J. Cope 184 We..have no other Way of carrying ‘Mouth Provision’ with us but by the East Coast.
mouth ring n. (a) the ring forming the mouth of a bottle, pot, etc.; (b) Zoology a ringlike structure surrounding or forming part of the mouth of an invertebrate; esp. the nerve-ring around the pharynx.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > constituent materials > [noun] > nerves forming ring
mouth ring1839
nerve ring1849
nerve collar1874
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > vessel > flask, flagon, or bottle > [noun] > bottle > mouth
mouth ring1839
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 578 The finisher..cracks off the bottle smoothly at its mouth-ring.
1890 Cent. Dict. Mouth-ring, the oral or esophageal nervous ring of an echinoderm.
1903 Contemp. Rev. Sept. 384 The anterior knots of the mouth-ring [of the cray-fish] have swelled into a still larger brain.
1969 Amer. Midland Naturalist 81 402 A mouth ring without lamellae surrounds the mouth opening.
1995 Manch. Guardian Weekly (Nexis) 24 Dec. 6 The phylum it is in has been dubbed Cycliophora, which is Greek for ‘carrying a small wheel’. That is because it has a circular mouth ring.
1999 San Antonio (Texas) Express-News (Nexis) 10 Jan. 8 h The handles will be attached to the shoulder of the pot rather than the mouth ring.
mouth-root n. U.S. a small North American plant of shady swamps, Coptis trifolia (family Ranunculaceae), which has an astringent root reputed to cure sore mouths; also called goldthread.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Ranunculaceae (crowfoot and allies) > [noun] > gold-thread
gold thread1778
mouth-root1785
1785 M. Cutler in Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 457 Goldenthread. Mouth Root... The roots are astringent, and of a bitterish taste. Chewed in the mouth they cure apthas and cankerous sores.
1859 W. Darlington & G. Thurber Amer. Weeds & Useful Plants 31 Coptis trifolia... A domestic remedy for the sore mouths of children; whence the name ‘Mouth-root’.
1931 W. N. Clute Common Names Plants 123 The canker-root (Coptis trifolia) or mouth-root, as it is called,..continues to hold its place among medicines for the cure of sore mouth.
1969 Farmers & Consumers Market Bull. (Georgia Dept. Agric.) 23 Sept. 8/1 Goldthread or mouthroot..is a decorative little plant that abundantly carpets the northern bogs.
mouth rot n. an oral canker sometimes affecting snakes in captivity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of reptiles > [noun]
goitre1834
red-leg1905
mouth rot1946
1946 Sci. Monthly July 29/1 The twin plagues of the snake collector, mouth-rot and mites, have never appeared in my specimens of Farancia.
1969 A. Bellairs Life of Reptiles II. xii. 516 Among the more important bacterial diseases are the oral canker or ‘mouth rot’ seen in captive snakes and apparently caused by species of Pseudomonas and Pasteurella.
1989 R. T. Hoser Austral. Reptiles & Frogs 195/2 More so than other ailments, mouth rot has a habit of recurring after treatment.
mouth stick n. (a) an instrument used by a dentist, doctor, or other medical professional when examining a patient's mouth (now rare); (b) a stick which is designed to be manipulated by the mouth and used to carry out a particular task by a person with severely impaired movement in the hands and arms; (in later use also) a stick which controls a device which is designed for this purpose.
ΚΠ
1912 Oral Hygiene Dec. 958/1 A more thorough examination than that of the first day was made, using a separate mouth stick on each child.
1956 Amer. Jrnl. Occup. Therapy May 119/1 The book rack, mouthpiece and holder described were designed to make it possible for a quadriplegic patient to hold a book and to turn pages by using a mouthstick page-turner.
1958 Nursing (St. John Ambulance Assoc.) iv. 51 In illness the mouth quickly becomes dry and furred... In such cases a mouth tray should be prepared... Requirements... Wooden mouth-sticks and wooden or metal tongue depressor in a bowl with a pair of dissecting forceps.
1988 Caliper Apr. 26/3 A control panel..is utilized with a mouth stick to turn the engine on and off and shift gears, and to operate lights, radio, heater, washer etc.
2015 Sunday Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 12 Apr. (First ed.) 14 Five years after a car accident left him a quadriplegic.., [he] lives in a purpose-built home..whose automated features are controlled via an app on his iPhone, which he operates with a mouth stick.
† mouth-stopping adj. Obsolete rare preventing any retort, argument, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > loss or lack of voice > [adjective] > silent or not uttering > putting to silence
mouth-stopping1641
1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answer Hvmble Remonstr. §6. 85 Good reader, consider this mighty mouth-stopping argument.
mouth-way n. an entrance.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > lane > [noun] > entrance of lane or alley
mouth-way1920
1920 A. E. W. Mason Summons xii. 121 Crossed the road and disappeared into the mouth~way of an alley.

Derivatives

ˈmouth-wise adv. by means of the mouth, by speech.Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1876 R. Browning Pacchiarotto & Other Poems 32 So, grind away, mouth-wise and pen-wise, Do all that we can to make men wise!
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

mouthv.

Brit. /maʊð/, U.S. /maʊð/
Forms: Middle English mouþ, Middle English mowyth, Middle English muth, Middle English 1600s mouthe, Middle English–1500s mowth, late Middle English– mouth; Scottish 1800s– mooth, 1900s– mouth.
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mouth n.
Etymology: < mouth n.Compare the Old English frequentative formation mūþettan to chatter, let out a secret.
I. Senses relating to speech and facial expressions.
1.
a. transitive. To pronounce, speak; to give utterance to. Now chiefly Scottish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > [verb (transitive)] > utter
leadOE
givec1175
tell?c1225
talkc1275
to set upa1325
to put outc1350
soundc1374
to give upc1386
pronouncea1393
cough1393
moutha1400
profera1400
forth withc1400
utterc1400
to put forth1535
display1580
vent1602
accent1603
respeak1604
vocalize1669
fetch1707
go1836
outen1951
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 18941 (MED) Was na langage man for to muth, þat þai ne all kindli it cuth.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. iv. 115 Rede me nouȝte..no reuthe to haue, Til lordes and ladies haten al harlotrye, to heren it or to mouthen it.
J. Metham Amoryus & Cleopes (1916) 889 (MED) Amoryus this mowthyd to plese Cleopes.
a1500 (c1400) St. Erkenwald (1977) 54 (MED) Fulle verray were þe vigures..Bot alle muset hit to mouthe and quat hit mene shulde.
1629 F. Quarles Argalus & Parthenia ii. 58 He that knowes not how To mouthe a curse.
1744 M. Akenside Epist. to Curio 25 From Year to Year the stubborn Herd to sway, Mouth all their Wrongs.
1822 Ld. Byron Werner ii. ii Who Taught you to mouth that name of ‘villain’?
1871 D. G. Rossetti Dante at Verona xlviii Lords mouthed approval.
1935 A. MacArthur & H. K. Long No Mean City iii She ‘mouthed’ the news to every friend who was certain to pass it on.
1982 V. G. O'Sullivan Rose Ballroom 28 [Skull had] sunk piss with a bishop and mouthed more damns when the world didn't shape up than a bunga eats yams.
1993 E. Galford Dyke & Dybbuk (BNC) 230 The words..are rhyming couplets of multiple hexameters, mouthed in an obscure Baltic dialect now lost.
†b. intransitive. To speak, talk. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speak [verb (intransitive)]
matheleOE
speakc888
spellc888
yedc888
i-quethec900
reirdOE
meldOE
meleOE
quidOE
i-meleOE
wordOE
to open one's mouth (also lips)OE
mootOE
spellc1175
carpa1240
spilec1275
bespeakc1314
adda1382
mella1400
moutha1400
utter?a1400
lalec1400
nurnc1400
parlec1400
talkc1400
to say forthc1405
rekea1450
to say on1487
nevena1500
quinch1511
quetch1530
queckc1540
walk1550
cant1567
twang1602
articulate1615
tella1616
betalk1622
sermocinate1623
to give tongue1737
jaw1748
to break stillness1768
outspeaka1788
to give mouth1854
larum1877
to make noises1909
verbal1974
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Fairf. 14) 21419 Quat þing þat ho him of wald mouþ atte hir deuise make he couþe.
c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 686 Þere Medea the mylde met hym hir one, And with myrthe at þere metyng mowthet to gethir.
2.
a. transitive. To utter (words, a speech, etc.) in a pompously oratorical style; to pronounce (words) with exaggerated clarity; to declaim. Also: to utter (words, statements, etc.) rhetorically, insincerely, or platitudinously; to pay lip service to. Also with out.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > manner of speaking > say in a particular manner [verb (transitive)] > utter loudly or angrily
yeiea1225
call?c1250
soundc1374
ringa1400
upcasta1400
barkc1440
resound?c1525
blustera1535
brawl1563
thunder1592
out-thunder?1611
peal1611
tonitruate1623
intonatea1631
mouth1700
rip1828
boom1837
explode1839
clamour1856
blare1859
foghorn1886
megaphone1901
gruff1925
loudmouth1931
woof1934
1602 2nd Pt. Returne fr. Parnassus v. i With mouthing words that better wits haue framed, They [sc. actors] purchase lands.
1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 2 And you mouth it, as a many of your players do I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow.
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. li. 167 When I heare our Architects mouth-out those bigge and ratling words of Pilasters, Architraves [etc.].
1700 E. Ward Journey to H—— ii. vi. 8 A stanch'd old Wit..Emphatically mouthing to the rest, Some Madman's Rant, or some Fools barren Jest.
1761 C. Churchill Rosciad 7 He..mouths a sentence, as—curs mouth a bone.
1835 J. Todd Student's Man. 115 Should you allow yourself to think of going into the recitation-room, and there trust to ‘skinning’, as it is called in some colleges,..or ‘mouthing it’, as in others.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Epic in Poems (new ed.) II. 3 And the poet..Read, mouthing out his hollow oes and aes.
1892 A. Birrell Res Judicatæ v. 144 The pompous high-placed imbecile mouthing his platitudes.
1955 A. West Heritage i. 11 For the most part, while she [sc. an actress] mouthed these things, she was utterly indifferent to my presence.
1989 Far E. Econ. Rev. 30 Mar. 31/1 Regimes..mouthed ‘anti-imperialist’ slogans but did nothing about hunger and conducted politics with guns.
b. intransitive. To use a pompous or affected style of speech; to declaim. Also transitive with it. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > use ornate language [verb (intransitive)] > be bombastic (of language) > use bombastic language
thunder1575
rant1602
mouth1604
rant1649
paratragediate1656
bemouth1799
fustianize1830
heroize1838
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet v. i. 280 Nay and thou'lt mouthe, Ile rant as well as thou. View more context for this quotation
1683 J. Dryden & N. Lee Duke of Guise ii. ii. 18 You have Mouth'd it bravely.
1713 J. Addison Cato i. iii I'll..mouth at Cæsar 'till I shake the Senate.
1813 H. L. Stanhope Let. 14 July in I. Bruce Nun of Lebanon (1951) ii. xv. 203 His lordship wd. promise..to..box his ears every time he mouthed like Lord G—.
1988 L. Ellmann Sweet Desserts 95 I mouthed on about idiosyncratic lines, the flatness of the picture plane.
†c. transitive. To declaim against. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > denunciation > denounce [verb (transitive)]
denouncea1400
proclaim?a1513
prescrive1562
aban1565
denunciate1593
to cry shame on, upon, of1600
to call down1605
to declaim against1611
declaim1614
proscribe1622
mouth1743
1743 R. Blair Grave 21 Then might the Debauchee Untrembling mouth the Heav'ns.
†d. intransitive. Of a word: to be spoken, to be pronounced. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speak [verb (intransitive)] > be spoken or flow (of words)
move1508
to pass the lips (also mouth)1526
come1582
roll1599
distil1610
to come out1653
mouth1762
utter1792
on-flow1863
1762 J. Wilkes North Briton No. 11. It [sc. the word ‘glorification’] found favour among their long-winded divines, only because it was so long, and mouthed so well.
1879 G. Meredith Egoist I. ii. 16 And, says Mrs Mountstuart, while grand phrases were mouthing round about him ‘You see he had a leg’.
3.
†a. transitive. To speak disparagingly of (a person). Cf. bad-mouth v. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > slander or calumny > slander or calumniate [verb (transitive)]
to say or speak shame of, on, byc950
teleeOE
sayOE
to speak evil (Old English be) ofc1000
belie?c1225
betell?c1225
missayc1225
skandera1300
disclanderc1300
wrenchc1300
bewrayc1330
bite1330
gothele1340
slanderc1340
deprave1362
hinderc1375
backbite1382
blasphemec1386
afamec1390
fame1393
to blow up?a1400
defamea1400
noise1425
to say well (also evil, ill, etc.) of (also by)1445
malignc1450
to speak villainy of1470
infame1483
injury1484
painta1522
malicea1526
denigrate1526
disfamea1533
misreporta1535
sugill?1539
dishonest?c1550
calumniate1554
scandalize1566
ill1577
blaze1579
traduce1581
misspeak1582
blot1583
abuse1592
wronga1596
infamonize1598
vilify1598
injure?a1600
forspeak1601
libel1602
infamize1605
belibel1606
calumnize1606
besquirt1611
colly1615
scandala1616
bedirt1622
soil1641
disfigurea1643
sycophant1642
spatter1645
sugillate1647
bespattera1652
bedung1655
asperse1656
mischieve1656
opprobriatea1657
reflect1661
dehonestate1663
carbonify1792
defamate1810
mouth1810
foul-mouth1822
lynch1836
rot1890
calumny1895
ding1903
bad-talk1938
norate1938
bad-mouth1941
monster1967
1810 J. Baillie Family Legend iv. ii, in Dramatic & Poet. Wks. (1851) 498 Let ev'ry ragged stripling on his lands In wanton mock'ry mouth him with contempt.
1881 E. Pfeiffer Wynnes of Wynhavod iv. ii, in Under Aspens (1882) 287 They mouth me; this Is death without its reverence.
b. transitive. colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S.). To insult or abuse; to speak insolently or offensively to, to argue with abusively. Also intransitive with against or at.
ΚΠ
1957 J. Parris My Mountains, my People 174 It all started over somethin' that had got 'em to mouthin' against each other.
1975 G. Swarthout Shootist 128 These was loaded,..you wouldn't mouth me like that.
1990 Harper's Mag. Mar. 75/2 Some kids mouthed him..and he..answered them back.
1993 in R. Lowe & W. Shaw Travellers 198 The first year of us being together we mouthed at each other all the time.
c. intransitive. slang. to mouth off: to express one's opinion in a forceful, uninhibited or indiscreet manner; to be abusive or offensive; to brag. Cf. to shoot off one's mouth at shoot v. 23g.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > boasting or boastfulness > boast [verb (intransitive)]
yelpc888
kebc1315
glorify1340
to make avauntc1340
boast1377
brag1377
to shake boastc1380
glorya1382
to make (one's) boastc1385
crackc1470
avaunt1471
glaster1513
voust1513
to make (one's or a) vauntc1515
jet?1521
vaunt?1521
crowa1529
rail1530
devauntc1540
brave1549
vaunt1611
thrasonize1619
vapour1629
ostentate1670
goster1673
flourish1674
rodomontade1681
taper1683
gasconade1717
stump1721
rift1794
mang1819
snigger1823
gab1825
cackle1847
to talk horse1855
skite1857
to blow (also U.S. toot) one's own horn1859
to shoot off one's mouth1864
spreadeagle1866
swank1874
bum1877
to sound off1918
woof1934
to shoot a line1941
to honk off1952
to mouth off1958
blow-
1958 J. Davis College Vocab. (typescript) 14 Mouth off, talk about something which is none of your business.
1961 J. Flynn Action Man xi. 95 You finished mouthing off?
1971 J. Mandelkau Buttons vii. 96 They were welcomed until at some point in the proceedings they mouthed off and they got jumped.
1988 Boxing Nov. 31/3 Almost from my first fights, I'd mouth off to anybody who would listen about what I was going to do to whoever I was going to fight.
2000 Heat 13 Jan. 33/4 Stallone's mother..can always be relied upon to mouth off about her son.
4.
a. intransitive. To grimace; to make derisive grimaces or noises with the mouth. Also: to move the mouth as if forming words silently (cf. sense 3b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [verb (transitive)] > grimace with
to make a pot at1532
wavel1654
mouth1827
1827 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey IV. vi. i. 30 He drew the cork from his bottle..and mouthed at his companions, even while he bowed to them.
1883 R. Gower My Reminisc. I. viii. 148 The unfortunate queen..retaining her calm demeanour as the mob shouted and mouthed around her.
1891 E. Gosse Gossip in Library xx. 256 The poet tramped the grassy heights..mouthing and murmuring as he went.
a1903 T. Pinnock in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 182/1 [Staffordshire] He mouthed at me till I was afeard.
1935 G. Greene Basement Room & Other Stories 45 The sergeant mouthed at him; you didn't mention the word death before a child.
1967 P. Shaffer Black Comedy 10 Miss Furnival: I'm afraid not, Mr Miller. Brindsley (mouthing nastily at her): ‘I'm afraid not, Mr. Miller’.
1987 I. McEwan Child in Time iv. 82 He was waving and mouthing at the stranger to stand aside or sit down.
b. transitive. To articulate (a word, etc.) silently or whisperingly; to form on the lips without voicing. Frequently with direct speech as object.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > manner of speaking > say in a particular manner [verb (transitive)] > articulate silently
mouth1960
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [verb (transitive)] > lips
sever1398
sparec1400
prim1707
mimp1710
pout1748
lip1826
unpurse1838
mouth1960
1960 M. Spark Bachelors ix. 134 He mouthed and breathed a message to her, contorting his face as if she were a lip-reader.
1968 M. Woodhouse Rock Baby xxiii. 227 ‘Security patrol,’ she mouthed, and pulled my head down next to hers.
1981 M. Gee Dying, in Other Words 101 He still kept reading, bent over and frowning and sometimes mouthing a word.
1998 R. Newman Manners 265 Pointing at the crust, I slowly mouthed three words—‘pick it up!’
II. Other senses.
†5. transitive (in passive). To be provided with a mouth (of a particular kind). Obsolete.
ΚΠ
c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) 6115 Ruȝ hij waren als a bere..Hij weren mouþed als a mere.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. xi. sig. Y8v A grysie rablement, Some mouth'd like greedy Oystriges, some faste Like loathly Toades.
1637 T. Morton New Eng. Canaan ii. v. 77 The Beaver..[is] mouthed like a cunny.
1736 Compl. Family-piece ii. i. 217 Which this Sort [sc. terriers] will do, having Courage and a thick Skin, as participating of the Cur, and mouthed from the Beagle.
6.
a. transitive. To put or take (something, esp. food) in the mouth; to seize with the mouth; to touch (a thing) with the mouth or lips. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > by eating habits > [verb (transitive)] > put or take in the mouth
moutha1500
the world > physical sensation > touch and feeling > touching > touching with mouth or tongue > touch with mouth or tongue [verb (transitive)] > touch with lips
moutha1500
lip1826
the world > movement > absence of movement > hold or holding > hold [verb (transitive)] > lay hold of or grasp > take with the mouth
moutha1500
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > head > face > mouth > [verb (transitive)] > seize or touch with mouth
moutha1500
a1500 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Trin. Dublin) 748* (MED) For other mete þan manysflesche mouthed he neuer.
1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 55v Corne carryd, let such as be poore go & gleane And after thy cattell, to mowthit [1577 mowth it] vp cleane.
1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iv. ii. 17 Hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes, In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you, Then swallowes you.
1626 G. Sandys tr. Ovid Metamorphosis vii. 146 The Beast..Appeares to catch th'vncaught; and mouthes the aire.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Persius Satires i. 14 He mouth'd 'em, and betwixt his Grinders caught.
1717 L. Eusden in J. Dryden et al. tr. Ovid Metamorphoses iv. 106 She found the Veil, and mouthing it all o'er, With bloody Jaws the lifeless Prey she tore.
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess vi. 131 [She] in her hunger mouth'd and mumbled it [sc. her restored babe], And hid her bosom with it.
1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect ii. i. 406 The satisfaction first of mouthing the object [sc. the lamb's mother's teat].
1872 F. Francis Bk. Angling (ed. 3) iv. 112 If the fish mouths it.
1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 6 A wolf..can..mouth an egg without breaking it.
1949 V. S. Reid New Day i. xxii. 114 Red is the Inspector's face as he champs his moustache like pasture horse mouthing dry grass.
1960 S. Plath Colossus 44 Farther out, the waves will be mouthing icecakes.
1982 K. Pollitt Antarctic Traveller iii. 58 A green glass bottle is mouthed and rolled and dragged by the sea until it forgets its life entirely.
1989 W. McIlvanney Walking Wounded 47 Sally stroked his hair a couple of times. She mouthed his ear.
†b. intransitive. derogatory. To join lips (with); to kiss. Obsolete.In quot. 1693 with punning allusion to sense 6c.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > kiss > [verb (intransitive)]
kissc1330
smouch1588
neb1609
moutha1616
to dab nebs?1772
snog1962
a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 441 The Duke..would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt browne-bread and Garlicke. View more context for this quotation
1693 W. Congreve Old Batchelour i. i. 5 Heart. And it should be mine to let 'em [sc. partridges] go again. Sharp. Not till you had Mouth'd a little George.
†c. transitive. Hunting. Of a hound: to mangle (dead game) with the mouth. Also intransitive. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > injure [verb (transitive)] > wound > wound with natural weapon
strike1538
engore1590
horn1599
spur1631
mouth1693
tusk1818
fin1889
1693 [see sense 6b].
1884 T. Speedy Sport in Highlands ix. 158 It [sc. the dog] showed a very slight disposition to mouth its game when shot.
†d. transitive with it. Cockfighting. To fight with the mouth or beak. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting or baiting animals > fighting between animals > fight between animals [verb (intransitive)] > fight with beaks
mouth1699
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Sparring-blows,..those in a Battel before the Cocks come to Mouth it.
7. transitive. Horse Riding. To train the mouth of (a horse); to accustom to the use of the bit. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > [verb (transitive)] > break a horse > to the bit or to the halter
moutha1533
bit1583
halter-break1837
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. E.vijv Gyue hym..a sharpe bytte to thentente that he be well mouthed.
1618 M. Baret Hipponomie i. 14 For he is accompted a good Horse-man in other parts thereof if he can but mouth a Horse.
1690 London Gaz. No. 2590/4 Stolen.., a bay Colt.., newly mouth'd and pac'd.
1860 Luck of Ladysmede (1862) I. 339 There is the new palfrey which you have been mouthing for me.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 94 Why, he cannot be nearly mouthed.
1901 R. Kipling Kim vii. 183 Think, Sahib! He [sc. a boy] has been three months at the school. And he is not mouthed to that bit.
1976 Horse & Hound 10 Dec. 70/4 (advt.) This filly would suit someone looking for a youngster to back and mouth this coming Spring.
1984 C. Kightly Country Voices vi. 163 You gradually got them introduced to what we used to call a roller..: that was to get them used to a girth, and get them used to being handled by the mouth—we called it ‘mouthing them’.
†8. intransitive. Of a river: to issue, emerge (in, into). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > action of river > flow (of river) [verb (intransitive)] > disembogue
fallOE
disbogue1589
empty1591
to have one's forth1597
disembogue1598
mouth1598
dimit16..
dischannel1607
ingurgitate1632
discharge1816
debouch1834
erupt1864
gurgitate1907
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes To mouth, or fall into the sea, as a river doth.
1832 F. Trollope Domest. Manners Amer. (ed. 2) I. xx. 320 The Ohio and Chesapeake canals..there mouths into the Potomac.
1881 R. F. Burton in Academy 21 May 366/1 He had originally intended to explore this great stream, which mouths as the ‘Nourse River.’
†9. transitive. To point the mouth of (a pistol). Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1612 T. Dekker If it be not Good v. i. 56 Fetch me deare friend, An armed Pistoll, and mouth it at my brest.
10. transitive. Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. To estimate the age of (an animal) by examining the teeth.
ΚΠ
1870 J. R. Graham Treat. Austral. Merino 32 When they were ‘mouthed’, at the time of delivery, fully 25 per cent. of them were found with teeth worn down to the gums.
1914 Dial. Notes 4 110 Mouth,..to examine the mouth of (a horse). [Kansas].
1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 24/1 Graziers buy old ewes without troubling to ‘mouth’ them.
1944 P. I. Wellman Bowl of Brass 170 I mouthed 'em [sc. mules] awhile back. Ten years old, mebbe eleven.
a1948 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 404 A competent shepherd should be able to do anything necessary with sheep—draft, shear, mouth, [etc.].
1967 B. K. Green Horse Tradin' 249 I still didn't get a chance to mouth that preacher's mare to see how old she was.
1972 P. Newton Sheep Thief ix. 74 I found the opportunity to mouth several of those double fork sheep—and one was only a four tooth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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英语词典包含1132095条英英释义在线翻译词条，基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。

　

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