Mouth
(Mouth) n.; pl. Mouths [OE. mouth, muþ, AS. muð; akin to D. mond, OS. muð, G. mund, Icel.
muðr, munnr, Sw. mun, Dan. mund, Goth. munþs, and possibly L. mentum chin; or cf. D. muil mouth,
muzzle, G. maul, OHG. mula, Icel. muli, and Skr. mukha mouth.]
1. The opening through which an animal receives food; the aperture between the jaws or between the
lips; also, the cavity, containing the tongue and teeth, between the lips and the pharynx; the buccal cavity.
2. Hence: An opening affording entrance or exit; orifice; aperture; as: (a) The opening of a vessel by
which it is filled or emptied, charged or discharged; as, the mouth of a jar or pitcher; the mouth of the
lacteal vessels, etc. (b) The opening or entrance of any cavity, as a cave, pit, well, or den. (c) The
opening of a piece of ordnance, through which it is discharged. (d) The opening through which the
waters of a river or any stream are discharged. (e) The entrance into a harbor.
3. (Saddlery) The crosspiece of a bridle bit, which enters the mouth of an animal.
4. A 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.
Addison. 5. Cry; voice. [Obs.] Dryden.
6. Speech; language; testimony.
That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Matt. xviii. 16. 7. A wry face; a grimace; a mow.
Counterfeit sad looks,
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back.
Shak. Down in the mouth, chapfallen; of dejected countenance; depressed; discouraged. [Obs. or Colloq.] —
Mouth friend, one who professes friendship insincerely. Shak. — Mouth glass, a small mirror for
inspecting the mouth or teeth. — Mouth honor, honor given in words, but not felt. Shak. — Mouth
organ. (Mus.) (a) Pan's pipes. See Pandean. (b) An harmonicon. — Mouth pipe, an organ pipe
with a lip or plate to cut the escaping air and make a sound. — To stop the mouth, to silence or be
silent; to put to shame; to confound.
The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
Ps. lxiii. 11.
Whose mouths must be stopped.
Titus i. 11.
Mouth
(Mouth) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mouthed (mou&thligd); p. pr. & vb. n. Mouthing.]
1. To take into the mouth; to seize or grind with the mouth or teeth; to chew; to devour. Dryden.
2. To utter with a voice affectedly big or swelling; to speak in a strained or unnaturally sonorous manner.
"Mouthing big phrases." Hare.
Mouthing out his hollow oes and aes.
Tennyson. 3. To form or cleanse with the mouth; to lick, as a bear her cub. Sir T. Browne.
4. To make mouths at. [R.] R. Blair.
Mouth
(Mouth), v. i.
