mouth

plural mouths

1. anatomyThe front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.

   She kissed him on the mouth.

   2 more examples

   "Open your mouth and say 'aah'," directed the doctor.

   I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. The end of a river out of which water flows into a sea or other large body of water; or the end of a tributary out of which water flows into a larger river.

   The mouth of the river is a good place to go birdwatching in spring and autumn.

   2 more examples

   The Yalu is mainly useful in floating down immense rafts of wood, which find their way from the town of Antung, at the mouth of the river, to the port of Newchwang, and to Chefoo and Tientsin for the provinces of Shantung and Chihli.

   1895 May, John Ross, “Manchuria”, in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, volume XI, number V, Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Geographical Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 220–221

   They spread apart after they were out of the mouth of the harbour and each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish.

   1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 28

   Synonyms: outlet

3. An outlet, aperture or orifice.

   But why give a tunnel mouth any decoration whatsoever?

   2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 42

   2 more examples

   But come, Lady, we are too near the mouth of the cavern; let us seek its inmost recesses.

   1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

   ‘It was called the wickedest street in London and the entrance was just here. I imagine the mouth of the road lay between this lamp standard and the second from the next down there.’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

4. slangA loud or overly talkative person.

   My kid sister is a real mouth; she never shuts up.

5. slangA gossip.

   Siobhán, you know Donna's a mouth.

   2012, Stuart Carolan, 40:45 from the start, in Love/Hate, season 3, episode 3, spoken by Tommy Daly (Killian Scott)

6. The crosspiece of a bridle bit, which enters the mouth of an animal.
7. obsoleteA principal speaker; one who utters the common opinion; a mouthpiece.

   Every coffeehouse has some particular statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives.

   1712 June 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, June 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 403; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

8. obsoleteSpeech; language; testimony.

   that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 18:16

9. obsoleteA wry face; a grimace; a mow.

   Counterfeit sad looks, / Make mouths upon me when I turn my back.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

present singular third person mouths · participle present mouthing · participle past mouthed · past mouthed · alternative mouthe

1. transitiveTo speak; to utter.

   How can you get up there and mouth such clichés?

   2 more examples

   He mouthed his opinions on the subject at the meeting.

   mouthing big phrases

   1826, Julius Hare, Guesses at Truth by Two Brothers

2. transitiveTo represent (words or sounds) by making the actions of speech, but silently, without producing sound; to frame.

   She mouthed a warning to me as the teacher entered the room.

   4 more examples

   The prompter mouthed the words to the actor, who had forgotten them.

   One was of a face repeatedly mouthing the vowel sound eee, the other was of a face repeatedly mouthing the vowel sound ahhh.

   2010, Jan Faull, Jennifer McLean Oliver, Amazing Minds

   It should be explained that lip patterns are generally not the same as patterns which would be made by 'mouthing' words.

   2016, Wayne Morris, Theology without Words: Theology in the Deaf Community

   "So very hot,” I mouthed at myself in the mirror.

   2020, Wanitta Praks, Maid to the Mafia

3. intransitivetransitiveTo move the mouth, with or without sound; to form (air or words) with the mouth, with or without sound.

   But words are nothing to the misbelieving -- mere air mouthed into a sound.

   1886, James Hogg, Polmood series, page 51

   1 more example

   There was also a close temporal contiguity between "smiling" or other "emotional" grimaces and mouthing and tonguing movements, so that it was often difficult to distinguish between mouthing and smiling.

   1987, Peter H. Wolff, The Development of Behavioral States and the Expression of Emotions in Early Infancy, page 15

4. abbreviationellipsisfigurativelyEllipsis of mouth the words; to speak insincerely.

   She [Marjorie Taylor Greene] seems to have sincerely believed the lies that shrewder players merely mouthed.

   2025 November 22, David Frum, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Came So Close to Getting the Joke”, in The Atlantic

5. ambitransitiveTo utter with a voice that is overly loud or swelling.

   This view of voice cultivation excludes all mouthing and ranting which have been thought to be necessary incidents of voice culture.

   1902, George Andrew Lewis, The Practical treatment of stammering and stuttering, page 195

   1 more example

   Those who endeavor to become eloquent by mere imitation of some celebrated model—an actor for instance—often attempt to gain this quality by altering their voice in an unnatural manner. Such a process never produces any thing but mouthing.

   1846, Erasmus Darwin North, Practical Speaking: As Taught in Yale College, page 123

6. To exit at a mouth (such as a river mouth)

   Suddenly an avalanche of stones turned loose right down a ravine and mouthed out on the road, stones large enough to knock a horse down, or larger, and a plenty of them to do a fair job on a large group.

   1999, T. Walter Middleton, Qualla: Home of the Middle Cherokee Settlement, page 39

   1 more example

   In this part of the address the position of the principal hanging-valleys was indicated , and it was pointed out that there were two sets, namely those which mouthed into valleys that had been deepened in softer rocks, and those which mouthed into portions of main valleys that had been deepened along shatter-bolts.

   1906, Philosophical Magazine, page 96

7. transitiveTo pick up or handle with the lips or mouth, but not chew or swallow.

   The fish mouthed the lure, but didn't bite.

   5 more examples

   She alighted and mouthed over several within a small space and a short time; and these buds were not at the bottom of the hedge; nor was she searching for a nest-site.

   1887 September, Charles Robson, “Natural History Jottings: On Wasps, chiefly”, in Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, John Eller Taylor, editors, Hardwicke's Science-gossip, number 273, page 210

   His manner of feeding was curious, any fish he was provided with not being snapped up immediately, but played with and mouthed all over for a quarter of an hour or more, when it suddenly disappeared as if by magic.

   1889, Francis Henry Hill Guillemard, The Cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea, page 165

   He would not touch any of our food that the bears had pawed and mouthed over, fearing it might be bad medicine for him, so some was got for him from Red Wing Woman.

   1920, James Willard Schultz, The Dreadful River Cave: Chief Black Elk's Story, page 50

   Everyone is kind of aroused, Thanatz is sitting up on the bar having his own as yet unsheathed penis mouthed by one of the white-gloved Wends.

   1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

   She found foamy saliva where the coyote had mouthed over the dogs, but no place showed any bite.

   1999, Laura Tice Lage, Sagebrush Homesteads, page 257

8. To take into the mouth; to seize or grind with the mouth or teeth; to chew; to devour.

   Each contained a long, wide, solid oak table around which all who could find a space the width of his body would mouth his brown-bag grub from home.

   1998, Marvin K. Rubin, Word of Mouth: A Manhattan Dentist Tells All-- (well, Almost), page 77

   1 more example

   Sometimes I ate food that the rats had already mouthed over; picking away the edges where they had been eating and using the remainder; not with any good grace, not without qualms; but because I had nothing else to eat.

   1938, Jack Common, Seven Shifts, page 62

9. To form or cleanse with the mouth; to lick, as a bear licks her cub.

   Before egg-laying begins, the spawning grounds are mouthed over (cleaned) by both sexes.

   1965, The Aquarist and Pondkeeper - Volumes 30-31, page 182

   3 more examples

   They were sucking off whatever adhered to the floating stems and leaves of the plants. They went from plant to plant and mouthed over each branch from base to tip until the whole plant had been gone over.

   1915, Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries - Volume 33, page 224

   Meanwhile she, and the male, mouthed over the inner surface of pot until it was as clean as could be.

   1937, Aquarium Journal - Volume 10, Issue 5, page 7

   Small slobs of things, wet and sticky, which Peggy herself distastefully mouthed out from her cavity, biting the cord which bound them to her, swallowing it, then licking the puppies clean one by one.

   1970, Christine Weston, The Hoopoe, page 6

10. To carry in the mouth.

    This transfer system continues until the young are free-swimming, which may be for another 3 or 4 days. Each time they are moved to a new pit, they are mouthed over and spat into their new crèche.

    1953, Clifford Walter Emmens, Keeping and Breeding Aquarium Fishes, page 154

11. obsoleteTo make mouths at

    And that other face -- that awful, gibbering, mouthing face she drew away.

    1873, May Agnes Fleming, A Wonderful Woman, page 269

    5 more examples

    He drew the cork from his bottle..and mouthed at his companions even while he bowed to them.

    1827, Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey

    Meanwhile, the tyrant, with untimely wit And mouthing face, derides the small one's moan, Who, all lamenting for his loss, doth sit,

    1854, Thomas Hood, “The Irish Schoolmaster”, in Poems of Thomas Hood, volume 2, page 40

    But active as this old professor of the dance was, he had when a child in Paris, in 1793, seen Marie Antoinette on the way to the scaffold, and described the unfortunate queen, with her gray hair cut short, her hands tied, seated in the cart, still retaining her calm demeanour as the mob shouted and mouthed around her .

    1883, Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, My Reminiscences - Volume 1, page 148

    The man mouthed at the bars. He was half-mad, I think, in that one minute.

    1906, Bernard Edward Joseph Capes, At a Winter's Fire, page 240

    What ensues next is a comical soundless argument only true parents will understand. It's all mouthing and miming, facial expression and hand flailing.

    2014, Emma Chase, Tied

12. To form a mouth or opening in.

    The front collar must be mouthed out as shown, to take the second cone on the mandrel.

    1882, Paul Nooncree Hasluck, The Metal Turner's Handbook, page 76

    2 more examples

    The front end of the barrel has to be mouthed out conically, so that the various centre points may fit it.

    1773, Paul. N. Hasluck, “Lathe-Making For Amateurs”, in Amateur work, illustrated - Volume 1, page 426

    The cutting edge of a shaving cutter should be mouthed out slightly with a fine oilstone.

    1956, Mechanical World and Engineering Record - Volume 136, page 471

13. sheep husbandryTo examine the teeth of.

    Daniels told complainants in substance he would not buy any sheep without mouthing them.

    1977, United States. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Decisions, page 1141

    3 more examples

    Either at the shipping point or as they leave the summer range, the older ewes are “mouthed out.” That is, their mouths are examined to see if their teeth are good for another year.

    1938, Byron Hunter, Harry W. Pearson, Alonzo Frederick Vass, Type of Farming and Ranching Areas in Wyoming, page 96

    No information could be found on the relationship between the productivity of ewes and the states of their mouths. While there is no doubt that the practice of “mouthing" ewes is founded on experience, the traditional standards may require modification since the adoption almost exclusively of grassland farming, particularly in the North Island.

    1957, The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, page 587

    After we got the ewes "mouthed out," we turned them over to the herder that Foncy had hired to drive them to Shaniko.

    1976, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Historical Quarterly, page 27