mouth (n.)

mouth (v.)

mouth (adv.)

mouth (adj.)

God never sends th' mouth but he sendeth meat.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.

God sendeth and giveth both mouth and the meat.

Thomas Tusser (Circa 1515-1580): Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.

Nay, an thou 'lt mouth,

I 'll rant as well as thou.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.

She looks as if butter wou'dn't melt in her mouth.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue i.

A close mouth catches no flies.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part i. Book iii. Chap. xi.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.

Then shall our names,

Familiar in his mouth as household words,—

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,—

Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.

The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes

And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Cymon and Iphigenia. Line 107.

Clo. Yes, by Saint Anne, and ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.

That soft bastard Latin,

Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Beppo. Stanza 44.

No man ought to looke a given horse in the mouth.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.

He ne'er consider'd it, as loth

To look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 490.

I assisted at the birth of that most significant word "flirtation," which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world.

Earl Of Chesterfield (1694-1773): The World. No. 101.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.

Old Testament: Psalm viii. 2.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them.

. . . .

Into the jaws of death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 3.

Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.

New Testament: Luke xix. 22.

Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth!

Oh for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene!

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stainèd mouth.

John Keats (1795-1821): Ode to a Nightingale.

These reasons made his mouth to water.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 379.

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;

Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;

Between two blades, which bears the better temper;

Between two horses, which doth bear him best;

Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,—

I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;

But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,

Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue.

Old Testament: Job xx. 12.

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,

The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,

With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

A good mouth-filling oath.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

My way of life

Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but in their stead

Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.

Careful Words

mouth (n.)

mouth (v.)

mouth (adv.)

mouth (adj.)