mouth breather

See also: mouthbreather and mouth-breather

English

Alternative forms

• mouth-breather, mouthbreather

Pronunciation

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Noun

mouth breather (plural mouth breathers)

1. A person who routinely inhales and exhales through the mouth, instead of through the nose.
   • 1967, Nancy J. Barron, “A Ride in the Human Centrifuge”, in American Journal of Nursing, volume 67, number 8, page 1654:

     Respirations cannot be recorded by this method, if the subject is a mouth breather (as no air flows by the thermistor in the nose).

2. (idiomatic, slang, derogatory) A person who is boorish, stupid, or otherwise unattractive.
   • 2004 March 12, Tim Goodman, “Trinkets are spirit guides in Fox's brilliant 'Wonderfalls'”, in San Francisco Chronicle‎^[1]:

     She's a philosophy major from Brown, now working retail at Niagara Falls, living in a trailer and working for a "mouth breather" of a boss.

Related terms

• mouth-breathe
• mouthbreathing