gape

CEFRC1

/ˈɡeɪp/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To look at something with your mouth open in surprise.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To open wide; to display a gap.

Examples

  • I can only gape at such perfection.

  • "Please don't gape at me. It's rather rude, y'know."

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To stare in wonder.

  2. To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.

  3. To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

More examples

In context

  • The wound was gaping open and losing too much blood.

  • 1723, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 1810, Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 11, page 467, She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, / And asks if it be time to rise;

  • Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Children sometimes blank in surprise when they see an unexpected gift.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰеh₂b-. Cognates include Russian зяпа (zjapa). Doublet of gap.