lick one's chops

present singular third person licks one's chops · participle present licking one's chops · participle past licked one's chops · past licked one's chops

1. To use one's tongue to remove moistness from the sides of one's mouth, as when salivating or at the conclusion of a meal.

   Pat presently came galloping up the orchard, carrying in his mouth a big field mouse, which, sitting down before us, he proceeded to devour, body and bones, afterwards licking his chops with great satisfaction.

   1911, Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Story Girl, ch,. 20

2. idiomaticTo look forward avidly to eating something.

   [The stranger] handed his platter to the large mastiff dog, who, attracted by the smell of the dinner, had sat down before him for some time, licking his chops, and following with his eye every morsel which the guest raised to his head.

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 229

3. broadlyidiomaticTo anticipate something eagerly.

   When the Federal Government set up the Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) last fall to help prop up the ailing airlines with $10 billion in loan guarantees, many credit-strapped CEOs licked their chops in anticipation of yet another big, fat government handout.

   2002 August 26, Daniel Eisenberg et al., “Air Travel Gets A New Model”, in Time

   Synonyms: lick one's lips