or potato-jaw, subs. phr. (common).—The mouth: hence, ‘Shut your POTATO-TRAP and give your tongue a holiday’ = Be silent!—GROSE (1785), BEE (1823); ‘to make full use of one’s POTATO-TRAP = to scold roundly.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Beak; blabber; blubber; bone-box; box of dominoes (or wories); chaffer; chirper; chops; clacker (or clack-box); clams (or clamshells); coffee-mill; coffer; dining-room; domino-box; dribbler; dubber; East-and-south (rhyming slang); flatter-trap; fly-trap; gab; gan; gash; gig; gills; gin-lane (or -trap); gob; gobbler; gob-box; grave-yard; grog-shop; grub-trap (-shop, or -box); grubbery; hatchway; hopper; ivory-box; jug; kisser; kissing-trap; lung-box; maw; mizzard; moey; mouse (or mouse-trap); mug; muns; mush; muzzle; neb; prater; prattler; prattle-box; rattler; rattle-trap; rat-trap; respirator; sauce-box; sewer; sink; sluice-house (or -mill); sluicery; trumpeter; yob (or yop).
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Abajoues (= the chops); angoulême (thieves’: engouler = to swallow. se caresser l’angoulême = to eat and drink); babines (popular); babouines (also = little hussy); badigoinces (popular); barres (popular); bavarde (= the prater or blab-box); bécot; caisse d’épargne (also = Savings-bank); cassolette (= the stinkpot); couloir (popular); crachoir (also = spittoon); égout (= the sewer); gargoine (formerly gargamelle = the gargler); gaviot (popular); gargouille (gargouine, or gargue); goule; goulot; guadeloupe; menteuse; mornos; moule à blagues (= chaffer); mouloir; pampine (specficially a thick-lipped coarse mouth); pantière (= bread-basket, which in English = stomach); plomb; respirante (bâche ta respirante = Shut up!); ruette (popular); salle à manger (= dining-room); tinette; triangle (artists’); trompette (= trumpeter); trou aux pommes de terre (= potato-trap).
1791. BURNEY, Diary, v. 209. ‘Hold you your POTATO-JAW, my dear,’ cried the Duke, patting her.
1836. M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge, xv. Hold your tongue, and give your POTATO-TRAP a holiday.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. iv. That ’ll damage your potato-trap.
1856. H. MAYHEW, The Great World of London, 6, note. Fanciful metaphors contribute largely to the formation of slang. It is upon this principle that the mouth has come to be styled the ‘TATER-TRAP’; the teeth, ‘dominoes.’
