make one's mouth water

Idioms  

1. Cause one to eagerly anticipate or long for something, as in Those travel folders about Nepal make my mouth water. This metaphoric term alludes to salivating when one anticipates food and has been used figuratively since the mid-1600s, whether it refers to food, as in The sight of that chocolate cake made her mouth water, or not.

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Example Sentences

Elsewhere, he can make one's mouth water with straightforward description: "I caught a ten-pound sea bass and stuffed it with shrimp and fresh crabmeat, then cooked it over slow coals."

From Time Magazine Archive

The sight of it was quite enough to make one’s mouth water.

From Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall by Vosburgh, R. G.

The pictures are enough to make one's mouth water and give one an appetite for Arabian dates.

From Topsy-Turvy Land Arabia Pictured for Children by Zwemer, Samuel Marinus

Madame de Pompadour, as she told me, turned away her head with horror; and the little Marechale gaily said, "This is indeed enough to make one's mouth water."

From Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI. Being secret memoirs of Madame Du Hausset, lady's maid to Madame de Pompadour, and of the Princess Lamballe — Complete by Du Hausset, Mme.

"Well, Don Julian!" exclaimed Dame Ramona, her face brightening again, "that tripe of yesterday fairly was of a kind to make one's mouth water with delight."

From The Joy of Captain Ribot by Palacio Vald?s, Armando