Library / English Dictionary

GAPE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stare of amazement (usually with the mouth open)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("gape" is a kind of...):

stare (a fixed look with eyes open wide)

Derivation:

gape (look with amazement; look stupidly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An expression of openmouthed astonishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("gape" is a kind of...):

facial expression; facial gesture (a gesture executed with the facial muscles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gape"):

rictus (a gaping grimace)

Derivation:

gape (look with amazement; look stupidly)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Look with amazement; look stupidly

Synonyms:

gape; gawk; gawp; goggle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "gape" is one way to...):

look (perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

gape (a stare of amazement (usually with the mouth open))

gape (an expression of openmouthed astonishment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be wide open

Example:

the deep gaping canyon

Synonyms:

gape; yaw; yawn

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "gape" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

The breeze fell for some seconds, very low, and the current gradually turning her, the HISPANIOLA revolved slowly round her centre and at last presented me her stern, with the cabin window still gaping open and the lamp over the table still burning on into the day.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I’d give something for a photograph of your gaping, staring face when you pulled aside that lid expecting to see the Lady Frances Carfax and only found a poor old woman of ninety.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I actually made myself sleepy, and before she began to nod, I gave such a gape that she asked me what I meant by opening my mouth wide enough to take the whole book in at once.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The others returned, the room filled again, benches were reclaimed and repossessed, and another hour of pleasure or of penance was to be sat out, another hour of music was to give delight or the gapes, as real or affected taste for it prevailed.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I need not tell you how, one day, when preparing the chambers for the guests, an accidental pressure upon part of the fittings caused a panel to gape in the woodwork, and showed me a narrow opening in the wall.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lydia gaped as he opened the volume, and before he had, with very monotonous solemnity, read three pages, she interrupted him with: Do you know, mamma, that my uncle Phillips talks of turning away Richard; and if he does, Colonel Forster will hire him.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Their amazement at me, my language, my rules, and ways, once subsided, I found some of these heavy-looking, gaping rustics wake up into sharp-witted girls enough.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Colonel Lysander Stark sprang out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch which gaped in front of us.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You romantic Daisy! said Steerforth, laughing still more heartily: why should I trouble myself, that a parcel of heavy-headed fellows may gape and hold up their hands?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The water you seek springs from a well in an enchanted castle; and, that you may be able to reach it in safety, I will give you an iron wand and two little loaves of bread; strike the iron door of the castle three times with the wand, and it will open: two hungry lions will be lying down inside gaping for their prey, but if you throw them the bread they will let you pass; then hasten on to the well, and take some of the Water of Life before the clock strikes twelve; for if you tarry longer the door will shut upon you for ever.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)