bouche

See also: Bouche, bouché, and Bouché

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buːʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From French bouche (“mouth, victuals”). Doublet of bocca.

Sculpture of a jousting shield with a bouche.

Alternative forms

• bouch

Noun

bouche (plural bouches)

1. (obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) An allowance of food and drink for the tables of inferior officers or servants at a nobleman's palace or at court.
   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:

     All having Bouch of Court, (bread and beer) and six pence a day.

2. (historical and in heraldry) A slit, notch or opening in the edge of a (physical or heraldic) shield, through which the bearer's lance or sword could be used or in which it could be rested.

Etymology 2

Verb

bouche (third-person singular simple present bouches, present participle bouching, simple past and past participle bouched)

1. Alternative form of bush (to line)

Noun

bouche (plural bouches)

1. Alternative form of bush (a lining)

See also

• à bouche
• bonne bouche

 

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “bouche”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buʃ/

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French bouche, from Old French boche, buche, from Latin bucca. Doublet of bouque.

Noun

bouche f (plural bouches)

1. mouth

   Synonyms: (vulgar) gueule; (informal) clapet

Derived terms

• à bouche que veux-tu
• amuse-bouche
• arracher les mots de la bouche
• bain de bouche
• bouche à feu
• bouche à incendie
• bouche à oreille
• bouche à pipe
• bouche à pipes
• bouche bée
• bouche d’égout
• bouche d’incendie
• boucher
• de bouche
• embouchure
• faire la fine bouche
• métier de bouche
• mettre l’eau à la bouche
• mise en bouche
• motus et bouche cousue
• né avec une cuillère d’argent dans la bouche
• né avec une cuillère en argent dans la bouche
• tourner sa langue sept fois dans sa bouche
• tourner sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche

 

Etymology 2

Verb

bouche

1. inflection of boucher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “bouche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French boche, buche, from Latin bucca.

Noun

bouche f (plural bouches)

1. mouth

Descendants

• French: bouche