gaper

[ gey-per ]
See synonyms for gaper on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that gapes.

  2. Also called horse clam. a large clam, Tresus capax, common on gravelly and coarse-sand beaches.

Origin of gaper

1
First recorded in1630–40; gape + -er1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use gaper in a sentence

  • Pushing his way through these gapers, Barton found, as he expected, that his patient had fainted.

    The Mark Of Cain | Andrew Lang
  • Koyala's laughter rang out merrily in delicious peals that started the rain-birds and the gapers to vain emulation.

    The Argus Pheasant | John Charles Beecham
  • Pitou spoke like a herald, with so much dignity that the farmers wife dismissed all the gapers.

    The Hero of the People | Alexandre Dumas
  • The afternoon varieties were over, and a phrenologist was talking to a small crowd of gapers in a corner.

    Tales of the Five Towns | Arnold Bennett
  • One man has put a plank upon the tops of three chairs, and by paying a few sous the gapers can hoist themselves upon it.

    Paris under the Commune | John Leighton

British Dictionary definitions for gaper

gaper

/ (ˈɡeɪpə) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that gapes

  2. any of various large marine bivalve molluscs of the genera Mya and Lutraria that burrow in muddy sand. M. arenaria is the American soft-shelled clam and the two species of Lutraria are the otter shells. The valves have a permanent gap at the hind end

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012