GAPE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Gape

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/geɪp/ Listen

noun

Gape n.

The act of gaping; a yawn.

(Zool.) The width of the mouth when opened, as of birds, fishes, etc.

The gapes.

(a)

A fit of yawning.

(b)

A disease of young poultry and other birds, attended with much gaping. It is caused by a parasitic nematode worm (Syngamus trachealis), in the windpipe, which obstructs the breathing. See Gapeworm.

verb

Gape v. i. (past & past part. gaped; pres. part. gaping)

To open the mouth wide; as:

(a)

Expressing a desire for food; as, young birds gape.

(b)

Indicating sleepiness or indifference; to yawn. "She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, And asks if it be time to rise."

(c)

Showing unselfconsciousness in surprise, astonishment, expectation, etc. "With gaping wonderment had stared aghast."

(d)

Manifesting a desire to injure, devour, or overcome. "They have gaped upon me with their mouth."

To open or part widely; to exhibit a gap, fissure, or hiatus. "May that ground gape and swallow me alive!"

To long, wait eagerly, or cry aloud for something; with for, after, or at. "The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes."

Synonyms: To gaze; stare; yawn. See Gaze.

See images of 'Gape'

Etymology of 'Gape'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gape" Quotes from Famous Books

... Now pull, you swine, pull. Odso, flog the black horse. You, devil broil your bones, lay on to him. What now? Od rot you, Antony, you'll see no money this month, you—" She became unprintable. As she took breath again, she saw Harry Boyce calmly contemplative. "You dog, who bade you stand and gape? Go, give a hand ...

— The Highwayman • H.C. Bailey

... from labors observable any time a street was repaired or a foundation laid, I saw no point in watching, hour after hour. I thought Gootes' persistence less a devotion to duty than the idle curiosity which makes grown men gape at a steamshovel. ...

— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore

... [Wee see men gape after no reputation but learning, and when they say, such a one is a learned man, they thinke they have said enough;] Our minde doth move at others pleasure, and tyed and forced to serve the fantasies of others, being brought under by authoritie, and forced ...

— Literary and Philosophical Essays • Various

... fish of the herring family, easily distinguished by its deeply-cleft mouth, the angle of the gape being behind the eyes. The pointed snout extends beyond the lower jaw. The fish resembles a sprat in having a forked tail and a single dorsal fin, but the body is round and slender. The maximum length is 8 1/8 in. Anchovies are abundant in the Mediterranean, and are regularly caught on the ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... capon, Let other hungry mortals gape on, And on the bones their stomach fill hard; But let All Souls men have their mallard. Oh, by the blood of King Edward, It was a ...

— England, Picturesque and Descriptive - A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel • Joel Cook

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