mouth n.
1. a fool, a dupe; thus you are a mouth and you will die a lip, a general phr. of abuse/dismissal.
Wandring whores complaint 4: I met with a Country Hick, and [...] we made a meer Mouth of him. | ||
Compleat Gamester 8: The whole Gang will be ever and anon watching an opportunity to make a Mouth of you. | ||
Discoveries 34: Another shall look out for a mouth that has a horse to sell or change . | ||
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: mouth a foolish easy fellow. | ||
New Cheats of London Exposed 20: When they hit off the cully [...] they come to a convenient place where the mouth, as they term him, must needs observe. | ||
Dict. Sl. and Cant. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | ||
Modern Flash Dict. | ||
Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | ||
Vocabulum. |
2. (also mouther) a noisy, talkative, boorish person; thus rank mouth, an especially impudent person.
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Mouth a noisy Fellow. | ||
New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
, , , | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
Heart of London II i: A rank mouth like you – you’d snitch on anyone for a glass of rum. | ||
Vocabulum. | ||
Sportsman (London) 7 July 2/1: A good instance of the doings of the who steal the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in is given in the case of one of tho mouthers who has long loudly [...] shouted about the way people should go. | ||
Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 3 May 3/1: McMouther [...] was raving like a maniac, and kicking the clouds about in savage fury. | ||
Amer. Thes. Sl. | ||
Whistle in the Dark Act II: Our intelligent brother wants it seven to three. Our intelligent brother is warning him to keep away from us trash. Well, mouth, what about the eighth Mulryan? | ||
Down All the Days 134: ‘Want to be on that, you mouth?’ answered Charlie, getting red and indignant. | ||
Boy, The Bridge, The River 81: He gave the Buffs up soon enough, ‘Lot of mouthers,’ he said. | ||
Alice in La-La Land (1999) 57: A running mouth who’d somehow escaped the wrath of the mob by telling as many tales on the cops as on the families. | ||
Turning Angel 119: ‘No one’s supposed to talk about what happens in the grand jury room, but that’s probably all those girls are talking about.’ [...] ‘Oh definitely. They’re major mouths.’. | ||
Killing Pool 7: The main mouth, DC Manners, is sidling over now, and there’s nothing less than unadulerated malice emanating from his twitchy, blinking face. |
3. cheek, impudence, verbosity.
implied in give (it) mouth | ||
Sl. and Its Analogues. | ||
Mules and Men (1995) 34: She got plenty hips, plenty mouf and no brains. | ||
Negro Youth 149: These so-called successful Negroes aren’t doing a thing but ‘jibing.’ They get by with a lot of mouth, the kind of pull you can get with rackets. | ||
Far from the Customary Skies 196: You’re all mouth. | ||
Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 130: She had too much mouth. All talk. | ||
(con. 1960s) Black Gangster (1991) 283: Your bitch has got too much mouth. | ||
Minder [TV script] 28: What a lot of mouth for a man in a serious predicament. | ‘Get Daley!’||
Real Thing 173: He was credited with being 90 per cent mouth and 10 per cent ability. | ||
Guardian 14 Sept. 1: Here comes Imran [...] full of mouth, sauntering late into class with a bag of crisps, stopping to chat to friends. | ||
Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Telly told him to go fuck his father. Sid didn’t like that; he was tired of Telly’s mouth. | ||
Glorious Heresies 176: ‘You’re all mouth’. |
4. the dry, foul-tasting mouth that follows a night’s excesses; thus have a mouth on one, to be desperate for alcohol.
Knocknagow 150: ‘This is the second three half-pints I’m goin’ for for ’em,’ she added; ‘though they never as much as axed me had I a mouth on me.’. | ||
Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 3/3: ‘I say, why don’t you ask a man if he has a mouth on him’. | ||
Kipps (1952) 88: He awoke with what Chitterlow had pronounced to be, quite indisputably, a Head and a Mouth. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 7 July 10/2: At a Sydney hotel [...] there was a daylight robbery of a large sum of money. [...] The detectives were called in, and they came in droves. No one officer seemed to have the case in hand; half the force just called from time to time, and was asked if it had a mouth on it. | ||
True Drunkard’s Delight. |
5. (US) a lawyer.
Sl. and Its Analogues. | ||
Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 41: the man’s mouth – Lawyer. |
SE in slang uses
In derivatives
In compounds
a noisy, talkative, loud-mouthed person.
Sporting Mag. Sept. XVI 256/1: Our old Bartholomew Fair acquaintance, Swords, nicknamed Mouth Almighty [...] was cryer to a Thespian Booth. [...] His bellowing was so harmonious, and his tremendous vortex so wide [etc.]. | ||
Sam Sly 28 Apr. 3/1: We advise Mr. M—p—t, alias Mouth Almighty, alias the hand- some counter-jumper, not to be seen in the King’s-road with dissolute female characters. | ||
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Sl. Dict. | ||
Ulysses 691: He had the impudence to make up to me one time well done to him mouth almighty. | ||
(con. 1930s–50s) Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 106: Mouth almighty. There’s only one mouth bigger than yours, it’s Portsmouth. | ||
Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Is it true that mouth almighty over there has got the contract? | ‘Wanted’||
Happy Like Murderers 46: But they – that is to say he – had a way with the chat. Mouth almighty. |
1. (US) a braggart, an empty boaster.
(con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 111: He’d show ’em! Some of these fellows that thought he was just a mouth-artist! |
2. (US) a talented fellator/fellatrix.
(con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 145: He wanted to feel contemptuous of Hank for being such a mouth artist. |
(US gambling) a verbal promise of a bet.
in Detroit Free Press n.p.: ‘Then, governor. I see you ten dolIars and raise you the whole State of Vermont.’ The game ceased. Mouth-betting was not a success [B&L]. | ||
Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. |
see separate entry.
the act of informing.
No Beast So Fierce 69: A passer was caught, and in the police station had an attack of mouth diarrhea. |
see separate entries.
see under habit n.
a person who gapes stupidly at anything and everything.
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Mouth half Cocks, gaping and staring at every thing they see. | ||
New Canting Dict. n.p.: Mouth half Cockt, gaping and staring at every Thing they see. | ||
, , , | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
, | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
(US gay) fellatio.
Queens’ Vernacular 34: act of sucking the penis until ejaculation [...] mouth job. |
the practice of cunnilingus.
Signs of Crime 193: Mouth music A taboo and gross expression meaning the practice of cunnilingus. Never used in mixed or family company. | ||
Lowspeak. |
(orig. US) a braggart, a boaster, a chatterer.
Hall of Mirrors (1987) 202: You’re a drunk, you’re cowardly, you’re a mouthoff. |
1. a spokesman.
in Bill Nye’s Western Humor (1968) 13: Secretary Spates, the silver-tongue orator and gilt-edged mouth organ of Wyoming. |
2. the tongue.
Wise-crack Dict. 11: Mouth organ – the tongue. |
feminine scolding, nagging.
Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
see separate entry.
(US black) impulsive or thoughtless talk.
God Sends Sun. 104: ‘Damn ’em all, all de womens! I b’lieve Florence is bad luck to me anyhow.’ But that was just mouth-talk. He had hardly spoken the words when he wondered if he were not actually losing his mind about her. |
the vagina.
[ | Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies 133: Her upper one [i.e. mouth] considering her size, is rather small, whilst that below bears no sort of proportion]. | |
[ | Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 57: He backwards drew / The shrunk machine, from that sweet coral mouth]. | |
Sl. and Its Analogues. | ||
Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 145: Gauffrière, f. The female pudendum; ‘mouth thankless’. |
see separate entries.
(US) bragging, boastfulness, empty words.
Big Heat 122: Hee knew Bannion was ready to kill him; this wasn’t just mouthwork. |
1. (gay, also mouth queen) a fellator.
Sex Variants. | ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry||
Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 31: mouthworker (n.): A fellator. | ||
Queens’ Vernacular 52: fellator [...] mouth queen [worker]. |
2. (drugs) one who takes drugs orally.
Grand Dictionnaire d’Americanismes. | ||
cited in Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986). | ||
ONDCP Street Terms 15: Mouth worker — One who takes drugs orally. |
In phrases
all talk and no action, a braggart, a fake.
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Oct. 14/3: They say Latham Is all mouth, but this must be a mistake . | ||
Sport (Adelaide) 11 Dec. 5/1: What is the difference between M F and Shad M ? One ia all coat and no trousers, and the other is all trousers and no coat. | ||
in Adam XXVIII-XXIX 34: Most men are all mouth and trousers — well, I like the trousers best, if you see what I mean. | ||
Till Death Us Do Part [TV script] See, he can’t – he’s all mouth and trousers. | ‘I Can Give it Up Anytime I Like’||
Go-Boy! 100: It turned out that Gordon was all mouth and no longer wanted to exit [...] on a stretcher. | ||
Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 134: Where were you, deserted me ye men of little faith / all mouth and trousers when it comes down to the crunch. | West in||
Neddy (1998) 223: When I fronted him over it, he tried to bluff me. [...] I tested him out and found that he is all mouth and very little ability to back it up. | ||
Filth 65: Aw mooth n nae troosers that prick. | ||
Hooky Gear 162: Still all mouf innit. | ||
Theft 149: He was all piss and wind [...] all mouth and trousers. | ||
Ten Storey Love Song 201: Stephenson won’t say anything — he’s all mouth and no chinos, that sort of wanker. | ||
email to Guardian 7 Feb. 🌐 Just some snotty nosed little toss rats, whose closest relationship to a women is Mrs Palm and her 5 daughters [...] all mouth and no trousers. | ||
April Dead 193: A know-it-all wide boy, all mouth and trousers. |
see under diarrhoea n.
see under dip v.2
(US) keep quiet, esp. in a difficult situation where words might complicate matters; the phr. is variable, ass often being prefaced by a type of bird, e.g. don’t let your alligator mouth overload your canary ass.
Urban Black Argot 137: Don’t Let Your mouth Overload Your Ass don’t talk too much. | ||
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 44: Don’t let your mouth overload your ass [...] refers to provocative talk. | ||
Ride South! 150: Don’t let your alligator mouth overload your jaybird ass. | ||
Rumors and Stories 55: Don’t let your alligator mouth overload your lizard ass and all that other kind of Vietnam talk. | ||
Another Day in Paradise 37: Don’t let your three-hundred-pound mouth overload your hundred-and-thirty-pound ass. | ||
Bloody Bonsai 49: A familiar kid’s saying came back to him from his childhood days: Don’t let your alligator mouth overload your canary ass. | ||
Right As Rain 287: I knew his mouth was overloadin’ his asshole, man, but with the alcohol runnin’ through me and shit —. | ||
Black Belt (LA) Feb. 97/2: Moral: Don’t let your alligator mouth overload your canary tail feathers. | ||
Wayward Wind 255: Mr. Harte, I recommend you don’t let your alligator mouth overload your mockingbird ass in the future. |
(US) keep quiet, esp. when speaking might make matters worse.
Urban Black Argot 137: Don’t Let Your Mouth Buy What Your Ass can’t Pay For don’t talk so much. | ||
Juba to Jive. |
(orig. US black) keep quiet, esp. when speaking might make matters worse.
Car 60: Someday, if you’re not careful, you’ll write a check with your mouth that your ass can’t cash. | ||
One by One 29: You shouldn’t let your mouth write a check that your muscle can’t cash. | ||
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 44: Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash refers to provocative talk [...] that can often lead to a fight. | ||
Norwood 184: Don’t let your mouth write a check that your ass can’t cash, son. | ||
Central Sl. 58: write checks you can’t cash To make boasts you cannot back up. To make promises you cannot keep. To talk stuff. ‘Don’t come around here and be writin’ no checks you can’t cash; you jump bad, we’ll kick your ass!’. | ||
Cold War 42: Now, just hold it right there, Lieutenant, before you let your alligator mouth write a check your hummingbird ass can’t cash. | ||
One Fine Day (1999) 62: His mooth was aye writin’ cheques his arse couldnae cash. | ||
Snitchcraft 80: Candace stepped closer to Dee [...] and very calmly said, “Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash. |
to be cheeky.
‘’Arry on Himself’ in Punch 21 Dec. in (2006) 6: Mayn’t a cove give it mouth ’cos his patter ain’t up to Pall Mall? | ||
‘New Year’s Day’ in Pearl Christmas Annual 70: Why don’t you give it mouth, Simpson, as you did when you abused me and Mrs. Jones? | ||
Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: bamforth: You going to inspect us, Corp? / johnstone: Don’t give me any of your mouth. | ||
Gentleman of Leisure 148: I used to give Silky mouth. | ||
Filth 49: Chinko’s been giein it loadsay fuckin mooth awright. |
(Aus.) to experience the dry mouth, furred tongue and disgusting taste that can accompany a hangover .
G’DAY 88: Shane is not feeling too clever when he wakes up. He has a mouth like an abo’s armpit. |
to experience the dry mouth, furred tongue and disgusting taste that can accompany a hangover.
You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 148: His mouth tasted like an Iranian tank driver’s jock strap. | ||
Lingo 87: Many Lingo terms refer to, involve, or name parts of the human body [...] We may [...] have a mouth like the bottom of a birdcage, or like a greek wrestler’s jockstrap. | ||
Kerrang! 18 Sept. 🌐 Dave Grohl is hung over. Not just slightly groggy hung-over, but full-on mouth-like-an-Arab’s-sandshoe-I-want-to-die-now hung-over. | ||
‘Hungover Gloss.’ at HairyTongue.com 🌐 Mouth like an Arab’s sandal [phrase.] [...] Mouth like an Arabs jock strap [phrase.] [...] Mouth like Badgers Arse [phrase.]. | ||
Supple.co.uk 23 Aug. 🌐 I wasn’t drunk on it, but later that night I woke up with a mouth like an Arab’s arse, so had to crawl downstairs and drink a few gallons of water. | ||
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 137: mouth like the inside of a Pommie’s jockstrap Rank, fuzzed taste from too much booze the night before. ANZ. |
to be severely hungover, suffering the effects of a heavy night’s drinking; also as one’s mouth is like….
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 188: Cor, me north an’ south is like a wrestler’s jockstrap. | ||
Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 118: Next day we awoke with splitting headaches and mouths like turkish wrestlers’ jockstraps. |
used, with or without have a mouth, as a measure of an extreme, e.g. of dryness, smelliness, death etc.
‘Hungover Gloss.’ at HairyTongue.com 🌐 511. Mouth like Gandhi’s flip-flop [phrase.] [...] 512. Mouth like Mother Theresa’s flip flop. | ||
Lollipop [ebook] He opened the can of lager and took a long satisfying swig: icy cold, numbing the back of his throat - just what you need in the morning when you've got a mouth like one of Gandhi's flip-flop. | ||
Immediate Response [ebook] I sleepily gathered up all my stuff. My mouth tasted as dry as Gandhi's flip-flop. | ||
Caddy Chronicles bk 1 [ebook] He pulled the lid off the object and sprayed some contents under each armpit. A manly aroma filled the car. ‘God, I needed that [...] I smelt like Gandhi's flip-flops’. | ||
Cup & Sorcery [ebook] [B]ut an unfortunate encounter with a rogue demon [...] left him deader than Gandhi's flip-flops. | ||
Urban Dict. 8 July 🌐 Gandhi's flip flop Burnt to an absolute crisp [...] ‘Overcooked on the bottom, Crispy as fuck and it looks like Gandhi's Flip Flop, What a shame’ - Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen. |
to be suffering the physical results of a night’s drinking; also as one’s mouth feels like...
Two and Three 17 Jan. [synd. col.] No more will we wake up [with] our mouths tasting like the bottom of a parrot’s cage. | ||
Le Slang. | ||
Cry Tough! 83: ‘Christ,’ [...] you look like the bottom of a bird cage. What the hell’s the matter with you?’ ‘I told you,’ Mitch said. ‘I got drunk Saturday night and I’ve been feeling lousy ever since.’. | ||
Come in Spinner (1960) 109: I’ve got a mouth like the bottom of a birdcage. | ||
On the Beach 56: I’ve got a mouth like the bottom of the parrot’s cage. | ||
Gun in My Hand 232: Bloody awful. Mouth like the bottom of a birdcage. | ||
Lingo 87: Many Lingo terms refer to, involve, or name parts of the human body [...] We may [...] have a mouth like the bottom of a birdcage, or like a greek wrestler’s jockstrap. |
(Aus.) to have a mouth that is unpleasantly furred, the result of excessive drinking.
Till Human Voices Wake Us 79: Don’t go no a hunger strike after a spell of bread and water. Your tongue’s like the bottom of a cocky’s cage. | ||
Legends from Benson’s Valley 26: I awoke with a mouth like the bottom of a cockie’s cage. | ||
Unknown Industrial Prisoner 8: His tongue was still cocky caged from the night before. | ||
Dinkum Aussie Dict. 15: One is said to have ‘a mouth like the bottom of a cocky’s cage’ when one is suffering from a terminal hangover. | ||
Beyond Indigo 283: The condition your mouth must be in, anything’d taste like the floor of Cocky’s cage. | ||
Sweet Surrender 99: I literally had no saliva in my mouth and no matter how much water I drank I still felt as though my mouth was, to use that delightful Australian phrase, like the bottom of a cocky's cage. | ||
April Dead 193: ‘I’m dying for a drink. Mouth’s like the bottom of a bloody budgie’s cage’. |
1. to be foul-mouthed or abusive; to be aggressively cheeky.
‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Great Scott, wot a patter he ’ad, and a mouth on ’im, ah! like the doose! | ||
Digger’s Game (1981) 143: You really got a mouth on you like a fuckin’ sewer. | ||
In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 22: ‘You’ve got a mouth.’ ‘You men teach us how to talk dirty, then you flinch.’. | ||
Happy Like Murderers 84: Hello Mr. Plod. Cunt. Oh, already she had a mouth on her. | ||
Night Gardener 113: Had a mouth on her, too. They was arguing over shit the whole time. | ||
(con. 1973) Johnny Porno 23: You got a mouth on you, you know that? |
2. (Aus./Irish) to be thirsty; usu. as interrog. do you have a mouth on you? would you like a drink?
Such is Life 11: A man that sets down to his dinner without askin’ another man whether he’s got a mouth on him or not! | ||
Best of Myles (1968) 241: That chancer was never in his life known to have asked a pal if he had a mouth on him. | ||
Stone Mad (1966) 226: Did I hear somewan saying had I a mouth on me? |
to act in a childish manner.
, | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
to be quiet; usu. as imper.
Lantern (N.O.) 14 May 2: [She] is to receive new shoes for holding her mouth and say nothing of what she saw. | ||
Boy’s Own Paper 27 Nov. 133: Hold your mouth, you one-eyed old tater-grubber. | ||
Jules 280: Hold your mouth [DARE]. | ||
[song title] Hold Ya Mouf. |
(US prison) eavesdropping.
Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 In My Mouth: Some one is listening in on the conversation. As in ‘man that hack is all in my mouth.’. |
to speak insolently (to).
Hamlet II:2: Those that would make mouths at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little . | ||
Man of Mode I i: dorimant: The nasty refuse of your shop. orange-woman: You need not make mouths at it, I assure you ’tis all culled ware. | ||
Female Tatler (1992) (3) 7: The girl, perceiving, made mouths at her, and hoyden’d out of the room. |
to be hanged.
(trans.) in Terence Eunuch IV iv: Howe the hangman makes a wrie mouth [OED]. | ||
Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues. | ||
Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 62: A wry mouth on the triple tree puts an end to all discourse about us. |
(W.I.) a chatterbox, a malicious gossip.
cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
the vagina.
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 116: He gently disclos’d the lips of that luscious mouth of nature. |
(W.I.) a phr. used of an incessant irritating chatterer.
Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
the vagina.
in Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 71: My pretty Maid, fain would I know / What thing it is will breed Delight, / That strives to stand, yet cannot go, / That feeds the Mouth that cannot bite. |
the vagina.
‘Rummy Toasts’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 295: May the mouth be well fed that hath no teeth. |
the vagina.
Sl. and Its Analogues. | ||
Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 42: Bouche, f. The female pudendum; ‘the mouth that says no word about it’. |
(W.I.) to slander, to speak rudely about.
Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(US black) to lose one’s temper.
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
to make a comment.
Autobiog. of a Female Slave 168: Take that for yer imperdence. Who tole you to put yer mouth in? |
(W.I.) to be forced to make a heavy payment after losing a libel suit.
Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(W.I.) to denigrate, to slander .
Voices in Exile (1989) 100: He have her the weight of his fist the moment she attempted to ‘put her mout’ upon him. | ‘Tom Kittle’s Wake’ in D’Costa & Lalla||
Won’t Know Till I Get There 9: ‘If you put your mouth on me, I’m gonna bust you up’. | ||
Catch a Fire 147: The rude boys [...] ‘put mout’ on’ (cursed out each other) to win the attentions of some stupid girls. | ||
Slam! 213: [I]f you show late he cops this nasty attitude and puts his mouth on you. |
1. to gossip, to tell tales.
[instrumental title] You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business. | ||
Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 726: Jim was off somewhere. Could be down there in the grove running his mouth off with Alfredo. | ||
Lead With Your Left (1958) 50: You can get into trouble by talking too damn much. Know who you’re talking to before you run your gums. | ||
Room to Swing 113: Sorry, boy, I shouldn’t have run my mouth like that. | ||
(con. WWII) And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 95: You run your big fat ignorant mouth and me and Professor Solly gon run our business. | ||
Last Toke 53: ’Bout time you be listenin’ ’stead o’ keep runnin’ you mouth. | ||
In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 55: It could be he called her Bouche because her mouth was pretty, because she ran it all the time, or because it was her sexual speciality. | ||
Homeboy 378: It was Savage [...] who run his mouf how the plaguers oughta be taken out to the range n shot. | ||
🎵 Now everybody wanna run they mouth / and try to take shots at me. | ‘Marshall Mathers’||
Blacktop Wasteland 190: ‘The other thing we don’t do in this family is run our mouths’. |
2. to give advice.
🎵 You always tellin’ me what to do, / Sayin’, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you!’ / You run your mouth and I’ll run my business, brother. | ‘You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business’||
Proud Highway (1997) 393: My impression is that one American working with his hands in Latin America is worth ten running their mouths. | letter 23 Aug. in||
Ghetto Sketches 17: The one that’s always runnin’ his damned mouth is walkin’ off. | ||
Mr Blue 148: ‘Don’t run your mouth,’ he said. ‘Just listen for a minute.’. |
3. to talk without restraint.
Black Cat Club 128: Let de man talk, can’t you? You allus runnin’ yo’ gab! | ||
Stone Walls and Men 356: If you talked in your sleep it meant court and you were therefore charged with ‘running your mouth’ in the dormitory. | ||
Vice Trap 40: Shirley ran her mouth too much. She talked a streak. | ||
Soulside 105: ‘You just get together and try to be sociable, that’s all,’ one man puts it. Somewhat less charitably, another man says: ‘You just sit there and let your mouth run’ . | ||
Nam (1982) 145: This guy is running his mouth. You can’t keep him from talking. You’d have to gag him to make him shut up. | ||
Dolores Claiborne 65: She ran her mouth until she got all tuckered out. | ||
Wire ser. 5 ep. 2 [TV script] He got a big fuckin’ mouth. An’ you need to stop runnin’ your own mouth, young’un. | ‘Unconfirmed Reports’||
Dirtbag, Massachusetts 61: I wasn’t told not to run my mouth; it was ingrained in me. |
4. as run up one’s mouth, to brag, to boast, to fantasize.
Slam! 235: ‘I bet we beat you by twenty points.’ Ice was in my face running his mouth. | ||
(con. 1979–80) Brixton Rock (2004) 102: He reckons he’s having a party next week, but I feel so he’s running up his mout’. | ||
🎵 You’re only starting out / So do not run your mouth. | ‘Remus Returns’||
Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 36: Now the inmate was openly challenging me [...] I sat back in my seat and just weatched him run his mouth. |
(US black) to gossip, to malign.
Runnin’ Down Some Lines 198: There were terms related to gossip and those who gossiped: set mouth, snipe [...] (gossip, talk badly about someone). |
to be duped.
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
(US black) to comment, to interfere verbally.
The Young Landlords 63: I was afraid that if we fouled it up my father was going to stick his mouth in it. |