tear-mouth

tear-mouth

English

Etymology

tear +‎ mouth

Noun

tear-mouth (plural tear-mouths)

1. (obsolete) A blustering, boisterous person.
2. (obsolete, acting) An overactor.
   • 1601, Jonson, Ben, Poetaster, act 3, scene 1:

     You grow rich, do you, and purchase, you twopenny tear-mouth?

   • 1819 April 1, Scott, Sir Walter, [Letter to Robert Southey]:

     How would you, or how do you think I should, relish being the object of such a letter as Kean wrote t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead, had at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a copper-laced two-penny tearmouth, rendered mad by conceit and success?

Related terms

• tear-cat, tear-throat

Adjective

tear-mouth (comparative more tear-mouth, superlative most tear-mouth)

1. (obsolete) Vociferous.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:noisy

References

• Farmer, John Stephen (1904) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 7, page 89