Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - mouth

(mouthing, mouthed) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Your mouth is the area of your face where your lips are or the space behind your lips where your teeth and tongue are. She clamped her hand against her mouth... His mouth was full of peas. N-COUNT: oft poss N • -mouthed He straightened up and looked at me, open-mouthed. COMB in ADJ 2. You can say that someone has a particular kind of mouth to indicate that they speak in a particular kind of way or that they say particular kinds of things. You’ve got such a crude mouth! N-COUNT: with supp, oft adj N • -mouthed ...Simon, their smart-mouthed teenage son. COMB in ADJ 3. The mouth of a cave, hole, or bottle is its entrance or opening. By the mouth of the tunnel he bent to retie his lace. = entrance N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft N of n • -mouthed He put the flowers in a wide-mouthed blue vase. COMB in ADJ 4. The mouth of a river is the place where it flows into the sea. ...the town at the mouth of the River Dart. N-COUNT: usu with supp 5. If you mouth something, you form words with your lips without making any sound. I mouthed a goodbye and hurried in behind Momma... ‘It’s for you,’ he mouthed. VERB: V n, V with quote 6. If you mouth something, you say it, especially without believing it or without understanding it. I mouthed some sympathetic platitudes... VERB: V n 7. If you have a number of mouths to feed, you have the responsibility of earning enough money to feed and look after that number of people. He had to feed his family on the equivalent of four hundred pounds a month and, with five mouths to feed, he found this very hard. PHRASE: N inflects 8. If you say that someone does not open their mouth, you are emphasizing that they never say anything at all. Sometimes I hardly dare open my mouth... PHRASE: V and N inflect, with brd-neg c darkgreen]emphasis 9. If you keep your mouth shut about something, you do not talk about it, especially because it is a secret. You wouldn’t be here now if she’d kept her mouth shut. PHRASE: V and N inflect 10. to live hand to mouth: see hand heart in your mouth: see heart from the horse’s mouth: see horse to put your money where your mouth is: see money shut your mouth: see shut to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth: see spoon word of mouth: see word