gape

Meanings

1. To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
2. To stare in wonder.
3. To open wide; to display a gap.
4. To open the passage to the vomeronasal organ, analogous to the flehming in other animals.
5. To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

1. An act of gaping; a yawn.
2. A large opening.
3. A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
4. The width of an opening.
5. The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.

Etymology

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.