MOUTHFUL

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small amount eaten or drunk

Example:

take a taste--you'll like it

Synonyms:

mouthful; taste

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

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

bit; bite; morsel (a small amount of solid food; a mouthful)

sup; swallow (a small amount of liquid food)

Holonyms ("mouthful" is a part of...):

helping; portion; serving (an individual quantity of food or drink taken as part of a meal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quantity that can be held in the mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

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

containerful (the quantity that a container will hold)

Credits

Context examples:

He entreated me more than once to come in and win, but what with his table-spoon to my tea-spoon, his dispatch to my dispatch, and his appetite to my appetite, I was left far behind at the first mouthful, and had no chance with him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Near Shotwood he came upon five seamen, on their way from Poole to Southampton—rude red-faced men, who shouted at him in a jargon which he could scarce understand, and held out to him a great pot from which they had been drinking—nor would they let him pass until he had dipped pannikin in and taken a mouthful, which set him coughing and choking, with the tears running down his cheeks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In vain were the well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas, and all the officious prognostications of Mrs. Norris that she would be a good girl; in vain did Lady Bertram smile and make her sit on the sofa with herself and pug, and vain was even the sight of a gooseberry tart towards giving her comfort; she could scarcely swallow two mouthfuls before tears interrupted her, and sleep seeming to be her likeliest friend, she was taken to finish her sorrows in bed.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Between mouthfuls he talked trail and dogs with the man, who, with head over the stove, was thawing the ice from his mustache.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

One Eye scooped out mouthfuls of the blood-soaked snow, and chewed and tasted and swallowed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Their geese and turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful, and I confess they far exceed ours.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The wolf thought to himself: “What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful—she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

There were four newly hatched chicks, a day old—little specks of pulsating life no more than a mouthful; and he ate them ravenously, thrusting them alive into his mouth and crunching them like egg-shells between his teeth.