Mouth

Mouth - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

MOUTH, n.

1. The aperture in the head of an animal, between the lips, by which he utters his voice and receives food. In a more general sense, the mouth consists of the lips, the gums, the insides of the cheeks, the palate, the salival glands, the uvula and tonsils.

2. The opening of a vessel by which it is filled or emptied; as the mouth of a jar or pitcher.

3. The part or channel of a river by which its waters are discharged into the ocean or into a lake. The Mississippi and the Nile discharge their waters by several mouths.

4. The opening of a piece of ordnance at the end, by which the charge issues.

5. The aperture of a vessel in animal bodies, by which fluids or other matter is received or discharged; as the mouth of the lacteals.

6. The opening or entrance of a cave, pit, well or den. Dan 8.

7. The instrument of speaking; as, the story is in every body's mouth.

8. A principal speaker; one that utters the common opinion.

Every coffee house has some statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives.

9. Cry; voice.

The fearful dogs divide,

All spend their mouth aloft, but none abide.

10. In Scripture, words uttered. Job 19. Isa 49. Psa 73.

11. Desires; necessities. Psa 103.

12. Freedom and boldness of speech; force of argument.

Luke 21.

13. Boasting; vaunting. Judg 9.

14. Testimony. Deu 17.

15. Reproaches; calumnies. Job 5.

To make a mouth, to distort the mouth;

To make mouths, to make a wry face; hence, to deride or treat with scorn.

1. To pout; to treat disdainfully.

Down in the mouth, dejected; mortified.

To have God's law in the mouth, to converse much on it and delight in it. Exo 13.

To draw near to God with the mouth, to make an external appearance of devotion and worship, while there is no regard to him in the heart. Isa 29.

A froward mouth, contradictions and disobedience. Prov 9.

A smooth mouth, soft and flattering language. Prov 5.

To stop the mouth, to silence or to be silent; to put to shame; to confound. Rom 3lay the hand on the mouth, to be struck silent with shame. Micah 7.

To set the mouth against the heavens, to speak arrogantly and blasphemously. Psa 73.

MOUTH, v.t. To utter with a voice affectedly big or swelling; as, to mouth words or language.

Twitch'd by the sleeve, he mouths it more and more.

1. To take into the mouth; to seize with the mouth.

2. To chew; to grind, as food; to eat; to devour.

3. To form by the mouth, as a bear her cub. [Not used.]

4. To reproach; to insult.

MOUTH, v.i. To speak with a full, round, or loud, affected voice; to vociferate; to rant; as a mouthing actor.

I'll bellow out for Rome and for my country,

And mouth at Caesar, till I shake the senate.

mowth (peh, chekh, garon (Ps 149:6); Aramaic pum, tera (Da 3:26); stoma, 71 times, once logos, i.e. "word of mouth," "speech" (Ac 15:27); once we find the verb epistomizo, "to silence," "to stop the mouth" (Tit 1:11)):

1. Literal Sense:

In addition to frequent references to man and animals, "Their food was yet in their mouths" (Ps 78:30); "And Yahweh opened the mouth of the ass" (Nu 22:28); "Save me from the lion's mouth" (Ps 22:21), etc., the term is often used in connection with inanimate things: mouth of a sack (Ge 42:27); of the earth (Ge 4:11; Nu 26:10); of a well (Nu 29:2,3,8,10); of a cave (Jos 10:18,22,27); of Sheol (Ps 141:7); of the abyss (Jer 48:28); of furnace (Aramaic tera`, Da 3:26); of idols (Ps 115:5; 135:16,17).

2. Figurative Sense:

(1) The "mouth" denotes language, speech, declaration (compare "lips," "tongue," which see): "By the mouth of" is "by means of," "on the declaration of" (Lu 1:70; Ac 1:16); "Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses" (Nu 35:30; compare De 17:6; Mt 18:16; Heb 10:28); "I will give you mouth and wisdom" (Lu 21:15); "fool's mouth" (Pr 18:7).

(2) "Mouth" also denotes "spokesman": "He shall be to thee a mouth" (Ex 4:16).

Numerous are the idiomatic phrases which have, in part, been introduced into English by means of the language of the Bible. "To put into the mouth," if said of God, denotes Divine inspiration (De 18:18; Mic 3:5). "To have words put into the mouth" means to have instructions given (De 31:19; 2Sa 14:3; Jer 1:9; Ex 4:11-16). "The fruit of the mouth" (Pr 18:20) is synonymical with wisdom, the mature utterance of the wise. "To put one's mouth into the dust" is equivalent with humbling one's self (La 3:29; compare "to lay one's horn in the dust," Job 16:15). Silent submission is expressed by "laying the hand upon the mouth" (Jud 18:19; Job 29:9; 40:4; Mic 7:16); compare "to refrain the lips"; see LIP. "To open the mouth wide" against a person is to accuse him wildly and often wrongfully (Ps 35:21; Isa 57:4), otherwise "to open one's mouth wide," "to have an enlarged mouth" means to have great confidence and joy in speaking or accepting good things (1Sa 2:1; Eze 33:22; 2Co 6:11; Eph 6:19). "To gape upon one with the mouth" means to threaten a person (Job 16:10). Divine rebuke is expressed by the "rod of God's mouth" (Isa 11:4), and the Messiah declares "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword" (Isa 49:2; compare Re 2:16; 19:15,21). Great anguish, such as dying with thirst, is expressed by "the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth" (Hebrew chekh, Job 29:10; Ps 137:6; compare 22:15).

H. L. E. Luering