Gape
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈɡeɪp/
- Rhymes: -eɪp
Origin
From Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa ("to gape") (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gapÅnÄ… (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ghÄ“p-.
Full definition of gape
Verb
- (intransitive) To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
- 1723, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 1810, Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 11, page 467,She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes,
And asks if it be time to rise; - 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 9, Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.
- (intransitive) To stare in wonder.
- (intransitive) To open wide; to display a gap.
- circa 1591 William Shakespeare, , Act 1, Scene 1, 1807, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (editors),The plays of William Shakspeare, Volume X, page 291,May that ground gape, and swallow me alive,
Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father! - 1662, Henry More, , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:"Nor is he deterr'd from the belief of the perpetual flying of the Manucodiata, by the gaping of the feathers of her wings, (which seem thereby less fit to sustain her body) but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed in Kites hovering in the Aire, as he saith, for a whole hour together without any flapping of their wings or changing place."
- a. 1699 John Denham, Cato Major, Of Old Age: A Poem, 1710, page 25,The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes: