make one's mouth water

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.

Example Sentences

"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."

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Talking of Wives," said Ostrich, with the most extraordinary irrelevance, "mine died when I was twenty-seven years old; and, of course, as it is the way with us Birds, I never took up with another, though I've seen the most beautifully feathered ones of our Kind—quite enough to make one's mouth water.

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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."

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Apart from the article, this picture alone is calculated to make one's mouth water.

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

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