Mouth (?), n.; pl. Mouths (#). [OE. mouth, mu, AS. m; akin to D. mond, OS. m, G. mund, Icel. mur, munnr, Sw. mun, Dan. mund, Goth. muns, and possibly L. mentum chin; or cf. D. muil mouth, muzzle, G. maul, OHG. mla, Icel. mli, 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.
© Webster 1913.
Mouth (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mouthed (?); 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.
© Webster 1913.
Mouth, v. i.
1.
To speak with a full, round, or loud, affected voice; to vociferate; to rant.
I'll bellow out for Rome, and for my country,
And mouth at Caesar, till I shake the senate.
Addison.
2.
To put mouth to mouth; to kiss.
[R.]
Shak.
3.
To make grimaces, esp. in ridicule or contempt.
Well I know, when I am gone,
How she mouths behind my back.
Tennyson.
© Webster 1913.