mouth breather

plural mouth breathers · alternative mouth-breather · alternative mouthbreather

1. A person who routinely inhales and exhales through the mouth, instead of through the nose.

   Respirations cannot be recorded by this method, if the subject is a mouth breather (as no air flows by the thermistor in the nose).

   1967, Nancy J. Barron, “A Ride in the Human Centrifuge”, in American Journal of Nursing, volume 67, number 8, page 1654

2. derogatoryidiomaticslangA person who is boorish, stupid, or otherwise unattractive.

   She's a philosophy major from Brown, now working retail at Niagara Falls, living in a trailer and working for a "mouth breather" of a boss.

   2004 March 12, Tim Goodman, “Trinkets are spirit guides in Fox's brilliant 'Wonderfalls'”, in San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2010

   1 more example

   That tiny blue slice is what’s left of the Coalition (both Liberals and Nationals), squeezed between the teals and a barbarian horde of mouthbreathers, grifters and flat-out, flat-earth fucking weirdos gathered under the bright-orange war banner of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation — or, as they would officially henceforth be known, His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

   2026 June 3, John Birmingham, “Neoliberalism ate the world. Enter: Pauline Hanson”, in Crikey