a.
1. a. Of a person or animal: Having a wide mouth.
1611. Cotgr., Diable de mer,… the ouglie wide-mouthed fish, called, the sea Frog. Ibid., s.v. Fendu, Bien fendu de gueule, wide-mouthed, sparrow-mouthed.
1843. Tennyson, Godiva, 56. The little wide-mouth’d heads upon the spout.
1854. A. Adams, etc., Man. Nat. Hist., 86. Wide-mouthed Fishes (Plagiostomi).
b. Of a vessel or receptacle: Having a wide mouth or opening.
1611. Cotgr., Mortier, the short, and wide-mouthed peece of Ordnance called a Morter.
a. 1711. Ken, Preparatives, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 92. Two wide-mouth’d Quivers fill’d with Store, Of deadly Darts.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Engl. Housekpr. (1778), 363. Put your gooseberries into wide-mouthed bottles.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. II. 52. The wide-mouthed fireplace.
1886. Winchell, Geol. Talks, 61. Another of these sea-bottom fishes hangs like an open wide-mouthed meal-bag.
2. Having the mouth wide open, or opening the mouth wide: a. for utterance, etc.; also transf. of the utterance; also fig. speaking, or spoken, loudly or without restraint.
1593. Chute, in G. Harvey’s Pierces Super., Gg 2 b. Thy wydemouth’d … phrase … Aptly hath knowne thine Armory to blase In termes peculiar vnto none but thee.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., L 4 b. Murder is wide-mouthd, and will not let God rest till he grant reuenge.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIII. xcv. His wide-mouth’d Blasphemies.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. iii. 384. His Sonnets charm’d th’ attentive Crowd, By wide-mouth’d Mortal troul’d aloud.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 603. Those wide-mouthed Languages, which do remarkably expose to the Eye the Motions of the Tongue, Lips, Throat, &c.
1745. Cibber, in Ayre, Mem. Pope, II. 85. This … is a Scent, that those wide-mouth’d Hounds the Daily-Paper Criticks could never hit off!
1903. M. A. P., XI. 137/1. His face wide-eyed and wide-mouthed in a voiceless panic.
b. for swallowing: Voracious, devouring, destructive.
1595. R. L[inche], Diella, etc., F 1 b. That wide-mouth’d time … shall shut his iawes, & ne’re deuoure thy name.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, IV. lv. Here wide-mouth’d Luxury Might gormandize her fill.
1887. Meredith, Phaethon, in Ballads & P., 156. The rage of the havoc wide-mouthed.
