mouthpiecen.

1673 J. Phillips Maronides ii. 24 He'd trumpet with a Tooth-pick case, Holding a Mouth-piece in disgrace.

1737 S.-Carolina Gaz. 23 Apr. 3/1 Lately imported and to be sold by Watsone and McKenzie, at their Store on the Bay, opposite to Elliot's Bridge, viz. garlix..german flutes with mouth-pieces and books for learners.

1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 279 This contrivance..left only a small aperture between the lips, just sufficient to receive the mouth-piece of the flute.

1857 W. Collins Dead Secret I. iii. i. 149 His lips began to work round the mouth-piece of the pipe.

1876 Smoker's Guide v. 61 For our part, to smoke a cigar through a mouthpiece is equivalent to kissing a lady through a respirator.

1896 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. I. 414 To..allow the child to suck the mixture from the sterilising bottle fitted with a mouth-piece.

1938 Foreign Service Feb. 55/2 The old-timer corporal..would be chewing tobacco at a time like that—and take a chance on spitting out his cud before he shoved his rubber mouth-piece in! Better to have swallowed the cud than to have taken just that one tiny inhale of..chlorine-phosgene Double-X!

1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 312 Some bagpipes have the air supplied by a mouthpiece or blowpipe, while others are equipped with bellows.

1989 Skin Diver May 52/2 The large black knob on the left side of the mouthpiece allows the diver to increase or decrease breathing resistance at a twist of the hand.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Bit The several Parts..of a Snaffle or Curb-Bit, are, the Mouth-Piece, the Cheeks and Eyes, [etc.].

1833 Regulations Instr. Cavalry i. ii. 83 Each regiment should have a few bits with different and easy mouth-pieces and curbs.

1897 J. L. Allen Choir Invisible xiii. 197 Her face concealed by a black velvet riding-mask kept in place by a silver mouth-piece held between her teeth.

1938 F. C. Hitchcock To Horse! ix. 274 The only objection to a double bridle is that its use entails two separate mouthpieces in the horse's mouth.

1981 E. H. Edwards Country Life Bk. Saddlery & Equipm. 17/3 Attention was focussed on the mouthpiece, to which was fitted spiked rollers.

1790 S. J. Pratt New Cosmetic ii. ii. 55 I recollect the reason now of your putting the mouth-piece upon them [sc. slaves]; but in case that should not answer, and they should by chance slip any thing down the throat, egad you'd let it choak them by confining the stomach.

1884 Internat. Health Exhib. Official Catal. 129/1 Mouthpiece for unhealthy and poisonous trades.

1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to Amer. 126 Almost all fighters now also began wearing a mouthpiece while in the ring.

1988 T. Harris Silence of Lambs (1991) 9 Lecter is never outside his cell without wearing full restraints and a mouthpiece.

1877 Sci. Amer. 17 Nov. 304 Whoever may speak into the mouthpiece of the phonograph.

1882 Jrnl. Soc. Telegr. Engineers & Electricians 11 137 I have here an ordinary sounder... Its armature has been broadened, and a mouth-piece fixed over it, the whole being made light, so as not to exceed the weight of the armature if unaltered, and this instrument makes a very nice telephone indeed.

1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 131/1 The [Reis telephone] receiver consists of an electromagnet made up of a magnetized coil... Suppose a sound is then produced in front of the mouthpiece.., the successive variations in the pressure of the air..cause the membrane to vibrate in unison with the sound.

1907 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 204/2 Telephone mouthpieces. Male or female thread.

1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (subscribers' ed.) viii. 47 Abdulla went to the telephone..and transferred the mouthpiece to Storrs.

1941 War Illustr. 30 Dec. 383/1 Unable to talk to the others over the ‘intercom.’ because my mouthpiece was not working, I stuck to the controls.

1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. v. 509 He turned quickly into the other telephone booth, dialed and stood bent rigid before the mouthpiece.

1987 Which? Nov. 522/2 A mute button..is useful for making asides that you don't want heard over the line (putting your hand over the mouthpiece often doesn't work with modern phones).

1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 41 You have made a fine Speech, Colonel: Pray, what will you take for your Mouthpiece?

1919 in H. L. Horowitz Campus Life (1987) 122 Cultivate no hair on your mouth-pieces.

1949 R. Mende Spit & Stars 73 You have some mouthpiece, kid.

1832 D. Brewster Lett. Nat. Magic viii. 208 To the mouth-piece was added a nose made of two tin tubes.

1776 W. Woodfall Let. Feb. in Private Corr. D. Garrick (1837) II. 135 As the printer of the Morning Chronicle, I am the servant of the public—their message carrier—their mouth-piece.

1805 R. Southey Madoc i. viii. 88 They looked Toward their chief and mouth-piece, the High Priest Tezozomoc.

1818 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 33 64 The thing called the Cabinet is nothing more than the mouth-piece of the Boroughmongers.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People viii. §9. 557 The popular discontent at once found a mouthpiece in John Lilburne.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 915/1 The fact that his very wording is similar to the wording now in use, shows how deeply is laid the tendency of human nature of which he [sc. Zeno] was the mouth-piece.

1955 Times 25 July 6/4 The newspaper Democracia, considered the Government's mouthpiece,..warned ‘enemies of the people’ that they were playing with fire.

1964 Earl Mountbatten Jrnl. 12 Oct. (1989) 101 On formal occasions he could only speak through his mouthpiece. I asked how the mouthpiece could possibly know what to say.

1989 M. Coren Gilbert iv. 99 The Speaker..established itself as being solidly anti-Imperialist and a mouth-piece for the radical wing of the Liberal Party.

1857 ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 13 Mouthpiece,..counsel.

1865 Leaves from Diary Celebrated Burglar 56/1 Now he was ‘pinched’ and this raffle was to help get him a ‘mouth-piece’.

1883 J. Greenwood Odd People (1888) 18 It was for the benefit of a man..who was ‘in trouble’..to ‘procure him a mouthpiece’,—which..is another word for a defending counsel among those sort of characters.

1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 33 Fixer,..one who acts as go-between for thieves and bribe takers. Example: ‘If you get a rumble, send for Jones, the mouthpiece; he's a sure-shot fixer and can square anything short of murder.’

1926 E. Wallace More Educated Evans iv. 91 Mouthpiece!.. Why, all these so-and-so lawyers hang together.

1960 L. Cooper Accomplices iii. iii. 164 I'm an Australian citizen and I know my rights and I want to see my mouthpiece before I say any more.

1994 Tucson (Arizona) Weekly 16 Feb. 4/2 That doesn't count the bill for Mr. Lang's attorney..who isn't one of those cheap mouthpieces you see on a billboard.