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Gape   /geɪp/   Listen
noun
Gape  n.  
1.
The act of gaping; a yawn.
2.
(Zool.) The width of the mouth when opened, as of birds, fishes, etc.
The gapes.
(a)
A fit of yawning.
(b)
A disease of young poultry and other birds, attended with much gaping. It is caused by a parasitic nematode worm (Syngamus trachealis), in the windpipe, which obstructs the breathing. See Gapeworm.



verb
Gape  v. i.  (past & past part. gaped; pres. part. gaping)  
1.
To open the mouth wide; as:
(a)
Expressing a desire for food; as, young birds gape.
(b)
Indicating sleepiness or indifference; to yawn. "She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, And asks if it be time to rise."
(c)
Showing unselfconsciousness in surprise, astonishment, expectation, etc. "With gaping wonderment had stared aghast."
(d)
Manifesting a desire to injure, devour, or overcome. "They have gaped upon me with their mouth."
2.
To open or part widely; to exhibit a gap, fissure, or hiatus. "May that ground gape and swallow me alive!"
3.
To long, wait eagerly, or cry aloud for something; with for, after, or at. "The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes."
Synonyms: To gaze; stare; yawn. See Gaze.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gape" Quotes from Famous Books



... rock, hollowed into caverns underneath, by the insidious beating of the trade wind waves. The chiseled doorways to those caves are rare specimens of Nature's mysterious work; some large, some small and of queer, fantastic shapes; that black-mouthed gape at chance passers, while towering high above, a roof of table land—arid, scorching pampas, is just as uninviting as the water way below. So desolate is that part of the coast that it is but little known. ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... disputation. I could put the question in such a form as would bring the million to agree with me. Look, for instance, at the execution of a criminal. See the thousands that will assemble, day after day, after travelling miles for that single object, to gape and gaze upon the last agonizing pangs and paroxsyms of a fellow-creature—not regarding for an instant the fatigue of their position, the press of the crowd, or the loss of a dinner—totally insusceptible, it would seem, of the several influences of heat and cold, wind ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... state to my countrymen your explanation of a circumstance which has frequently caused them great perplexity. Oh! the English are a clever people, and have a deep meaning in all they do. What a vision of deep policy opens itself to my view! they do not send their fool to Vienna in order to gape at processions, and to bow and scrape at a base Papist court, but to drink at the great dinners the celebrated Tokay of Hungary, which the Hungarians, though they do not drink it, are very proud of, and by doing so to intimate the sympathy ...
— The Romany Rye • George Borrow

... full proportion and shape of an Estrich. On the breast of the horse were the forepartes of this greedie birde aduaunced, whence as his manner is, hee reacht out his long necke to the raines of the bridle, thinking they had beene yron, and styll seemed to gape after the golden bit, and euer as the courser dyd rayse or curuet, to haue swallowed it halfe in. His winges, which hee neuer vseth but running, beeing spreaded full sayle, made his lustie steede as proude vnder him as he had beene some other Pegasus, and so quieueringly and tenderly ...
— The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton - With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse • Thomas Nash

... the neophyte, was the pleasantest part of the evening. He seemed to hear of everything that was going on in London, and a good deal more besides. He was behind the scenes of all the commercial, social and political performances which were causing the vulgar crowd to gape. He discovered the true history of the hostility shown by So-and-so to the premier; he was told the little scandal which caused Her Majesty to refuse to knight a certain gentleman who had claims on the government; he heard what the duke really did offer to the gamekeeper whose ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 90, June, 1875 • Various


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