gape

See also: gapę

English

Etymology

Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰеh₂b-. Cognates include Russian зяпа (zjapa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡeɪp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪp

Verb

gape (third-person singular simple present gapes, present participle gaping, simple past and past participle gaped)

1. (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, chapter IX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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.

2. (intransitive) To stare in wonder.
   • 1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:

     Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]

   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter I, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 5:

     The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play.

3. (intransitive) To open wide; to display a gap.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     May that ground gape, and swallow me alive, / Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father!

   • 1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:

     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, published 1710, page 25:

     The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes:

4. (intransitive, of a cat) To open the passage to the vomeronasal organ, analogous to the flehming in other animals.
5. (pornography) To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

Translations

to open the mouth wide

• Bulgarian: зея (bg) (zeja), прозявам се (prozjavam se)
• Czech: zívat (cs) impf
• Danish: gabe
• Dutch: gapen (nl)
• Esperanto: faŭki
• Finnish: avata ammolleen
• French: bayer (fr), béer (fr)
• Georgian: პირის დაღება (ṗiris daɣeba), პირის დაფჩენა (ṗiris dapčena)
• Italian: spalancare (it)
• Malay: nganga (ms)
• Maori: piere (refers to a wound)
• Ottoman Turkish: اسنمك (esnemek)
• Russian: разева́ть рот impf (razevátʹ rot), рази́нуть рот pf (razínutʹ rot)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: зја́пити

  Roman: zjápiti (sh)

• Spanish: boquear (es)
• Swedish: gapa (sv)
• Tocharian B: kāy-

to stare in wonderment

• Bulgarian: зяпам (bg) (zjapam)
• Czech: zírat (cs), koukat (cs) impf
• Esperanto: gapi (eo)
• Finnish: toljottaa
• Georgian: პირის დაღება (ṗiris daɣeba), მიშტერება (mišṭereba), პირის დაფჩენა (ṗiris dapčena), მიჩერება (mičereba)
• Maori: putē, titiro māhoi
• Russian: глазе́ть (ru) impf (glazétʹ), тара́щиться (ru) impf (taráščitʹsja), пя́литься (ru) impf (pjálitʹsja)
• Swedish: gapa (sv)
• Yiddish: גאַפֿן (gafn)

to open wide

• Bulgarian: зея (bg) (zeja)
• Finnish: ammottaa (fi)
• French: béer (fr)
• Georgian: მთქნარება (mtknareba), დამთქნარება (damtknareba)
• Maori: kotā
• Portuguese: escancarar (pt)
• Russian: зия́ть (ru) impf (zijátʹ)
• Spanish: abrirse (es)
• Swedish: gapa (sv)

Noun

An illustration showing the gape (maximum opening) of the mouth of a cobra

gape (countable and uncountable, plural gapes)

1. (uncommon) An act of gaping; a yawn.
   • 1745, Richard Graves, Euphrosyne:

     Now a gen'ral gape goes round,
     And vapours cloud each sleepy head.

2. A large opening.
3. (uncountable) A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
4. The width of an opening.
5. (zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.

Translations

a yawn

• Bulgarian: прозявка f (prozjavka)
• Finnish: haukotus (fi)
• Russian: зево́к (ru) m (zevók)

Derived terms

• agape
• gape-mouthed
• gape seed

 

Anagrams

• PAGE, Page, page, peag

Dutch

Verb

gape

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of gapen

Anagrams

• page

Northern Sotho

Adverb

gape

1. again

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa.

Verb

gape (imperative gap, present tense gaper, passive gapes, simple past gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, present participle gapende)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

   gap opp! - open wide! (e.g. at the dentist)

References

• “gape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• gapa

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa.

Verb

gape (present tense gapar or gaper, past tense gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, passive infinitive gapast, present participle gapande, imperative gap)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

References

• “gape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.