Gape (g hard)
.Looking for gapeseed. Gaping about and doing nothing. A corruption of “Looking a-gapesing;” gapesing is staring about with one’s mouth open. A-gapesing and a-trapesing are still used in Norfolk.
Seeking a gape’s nest. (Devonshire.) A gape’s nest is a sight which-people stare at with wide-open mouth. The word “nest” was used in a much wider sense formerly than it is now. Thus we read of a “nest of shelves,” a “nest of thieves,” a “cosy nest.” A gape’s nest is the nest or place where anything stared at is to be found. (See Mare’s Nest.)
