gaping

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡeɪpɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -eɪpɪŋ

From Middle English gaping, gapynge, variants of Middle English gapand, gapande, equivalent to gape +‎ -ing.

gaping

1. present participle and gerund of gape

gaping (comparative more gaping, superlative most gaping)

1. Wide open.

   There’s a gaping hole in the fence.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.

2. Having the jaw wide open, as in astonishment or stupefaction.
   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 134:

     The men who stood behind the scenes and worked the religious puppet-show by hidden wires to the awe and astonishment of the gaping vulgar.

From Middle English gapynge, equivalent to gape +‎ -ing.

gaping (plural gapings)

1. The act of one who gapes.
   • 1820, John Cooke, A Treatise on Nervous Diseases: Vol. I on Apoplexy:

     M. Le Gallois considers these gapings, which continue for some time after decapitation, as the vain efforts of the head for respiration.

2. Something gaping; something agape.
3. A threat or courtship behavior in animals involving holding the mouth open and displaying the teeth or other interior features.

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