gapes

[ geyps, gaps ]

noun(used with a singular verb)

Veterinary Pathology. a parasitic disease of poultry and other birds, characterized by frequent gaping due to infestation of the trachea and bronchi with gapeworms.
a fit of yawning.

Origin of gapes

see origin at gape, -s³

Other words from gapes

gapy, adjective

Words Nearby gapes

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use gapes in a sentence

Stitches are only required when the wound gapes to a considerable extent, as it will always do when running across a muscle.
A Treatise on Sheep: | Ambrose Blacklock
He speaks yawing like a jackdaw that gapes to be fed with cheese-curds.
The Mermaid Series. Edited by H. Ellis. The best plays of the old dramatists. Thomas Dekker. Edited, with an introduction and notes by Ernest Rhys. | Thomas Dekker
In these, too, the ligament is very prominent, and the shell gapes slightly at both ends.
The Sea Shore | William S. Furneaux
He must not look at his wife when she sneezes or gapes or eats.
The Chautauquan, Vol. III, January 1883 | The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
White terriers suffer most from distemper; white chickens from the gapes.
Darwinism (1889) | Alfred Russel Wallace

British Dictionary definitions for gapes

gapes

/ (ɡeɪps) /

noun(functioning as singular)

a disease of young domestic fowl, characterized by gaping or gasping for breath and caused by parasitic worms (gapeworms)
informal a fit of yawning

Derived forms of gapes

gapy, adjective

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

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