1594 T. Nashe Christs Teares (new ed.) Pref. *3 A man may murder any thing if hee list in the mouthing.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes A mouthinge, or looking staringlie.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. vi. 117 The beholder at first sight, conceives it [sc. the cub] a rude and informous lumpe of flesh, and imputes the ensuing shape unto the mouthing of the Dam. View more context for this quotation

1728 A. Pope Dunciad ii. 217 The Monkey-mimicks rush discordant in; 'Twas chatt'ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb'ring all.

1762 D. Garrick Let. 6 Nov. (1963) I. 367 They still keep to their Strutting, bouncing & mouthing, that with Whiskers on, they put me in mind of y^e late Czar of Russia, who was..a Madman.

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) iii. 31 The faces of men he knew, rendered hideous by gibing and mouthing, peered out from among them.

1876 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 2nd Ser. v. 217 Thomson..too often falls into more pompous mouthing.

1884 E. Yates Recoll. & Experiences I. v. 205 A fine old-crusted actor, full of mouthings and conventionalisms.

1923 J. J. McGraw My Thirty Years in Baseball viii. 43 Quit your mouthing and get out and show something.

1947 Forum (Johannesburg) 10 i. 23/2 So it is that words like ‘interdenominisationalism’ and ‘polyphiloprogenitive’, with which we are wont to sprinkle our normal natter, sound like the mouthings of the village idiot.

1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Feb. 122 (caption) The photograph shows part of the preparation of a breeding flock for the season, which entails mouthing, drafting for wool, age, and other factors.

1990 B. Moore Lies of Silence i. 2 The words were meaningless as the muted mouthings of the newsreader on the television set.

1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports ii. 1. viii. §5. 346/1 The Mouthing-Bit may now be put on.

1963 E. H. Edwards Saddlery xxiii. 178 A great many mouthing bits are too large and it is important to see that the bit is the right size.

a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 619/2 Mouthing Machine (Sheet-metal Working), a machine for crimping bottoms and swaging or mouthing the tops of open-top cans, to receive the covers.

1883 W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining 171 Mouthing.

1902 Daily Chron. 4 Apr. 6/4 It is only a new mine, and there was only three yards in the mouthing.

1967 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) viii. 19 Mouthing, the entrance to an inset.

1627 W. Hawkins Apollo Shroving i. v. 14 Come mouthing Præco, cleare thy throate, And chant the law in twanging note.

1681 W. Robertson Phraseologia generalis (1693) 898 A mouthing fellow, Clamosus.

1693 J. Dryden tr. Persius Satires v. 60 When Progne's or Thyestes's Feast they write; And, for the mouthing Actor, Verse indite.

1745 C. Cibber Papal Tyranny iv. i. 45 This mouthing Priest would swell the Pow'r of Rome.

1800 B. Thompson tr. A. von Kotzebue Count Benyowsky iv 71 Benyowsky is nothing but a mouthing hero.

1865 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia VI. xxi. iv. 464 A solemn, arrogant, mouthing..kind of man.

1904 E. Rickert Reaper 62 One might see in her withered mouthing face the wreckage of a great beauty.

1934 D. Thomas 18 Poems 17 The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax.

1975 Audubon May 16/1 A bout [of bear play] usually begins with mild nose-poking and soft mouthing bites followed by more intensive activities.

1814 L. Hunt Feast Poets (1815) 50 A translation..which..is at least..much above the mouthing nonentities which have been palmed upon us of late years for that wonderful poet.

1877 M. Oliphant Makers of Florence (ed. 2) v. 128 That fine mouthing speech of his, magniloquent and generous.

1671 R. Head & F. Kirkman Eng. Rogue IV. 102 I..could when occasion serv'd not, swear mouthingly,..look impudently, talk impertinently, [etc.].

1903 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Aug. 277/2 What the philosophical Radicals..mouthingly extolled as ‘individual initiative’.