You know what it looks like… but what is it called?
TAKE THE QUIZ
gaped; gaping
plural gapes
1
: an act or instance of opening the mouth wide or of keeping the mouth open wide
One piranha, she discovered, went from wide-open gape to shut jaws in less than five milliseconds, far faster than the wink of an eye.—
Per Ola d'Aulaire and Emily d'Aulaire
At first glance, the case seemed routine, and the suspects elicited no gapes [=open-mouthed looks] of surprise …—
Michael Powell and Nicholas Confessore
She was pushing an unwieldy shopping cart in the street, trying to keep out of the way of oncoming cars, ignoring the gapes of passersby.—
Joan Levine
—often used in combination
sometimes, specifically
: yawn entry 2 sense 2
4
gapes plural in form but singular in construction
: a disease of birds and especially young birds in which gapeworms invade and irritate the trachea (see trachea sense 1)
—often used with the
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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