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Gape (g hard)

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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 wordnest” 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.)

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Ganesa (g hard)
Gang a-gley (To)
Gang-board, or Gang-way (g hard)
Gang-day (g hard)
Gangway (g hard)
Ganges (The)
Ganna
Ganor (g hard), Gineura (g soft), or Guinever
Ganymede
Gaora
Gape (g hard)
Garagantua (g hard)
Garagantuan
Garble (g hard)
Garcias (g hard)
Gardarike
Garden (g hard)
Gardener (g hard)
Gardening (g hard)
Gargamelle
Gargantua (g hard)