Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A gaping simpleton who believes everything that he hears; a credulous person.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Literally, a fly swallower; hence, once who keeps his mouth open; a boor; a silly and credulous person.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun naive person.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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S. O'BRIEN: It's a fly swallower, a dupe, gobemouche.
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M. O'BRIEN: I had a husky team and I told them to gobemouche.
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It was only a gobemouche of a Bavarian that could ever have been induced to accept it.
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Ye _gobemouche_ creatures of batrachian features, who "go a-wooing" such
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, April 4, 1891 Various
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Firm and steady, now, fair partner mine, whiles we run that _gobemouche_ down and trample him miserably.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales Ambrose Bierce 1878
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Not like your Albion -- if it is yours -- who is a great gobemouche stuffed full of cotton, steaming with fog, clutching gold with one hand and the Bible with the other, that she may swell her money-bags, and seem a saint all the same; never laughing, never learning, always growling, always shuffling, who is like this spider -- look!
Under Two Flags 1839-1908 Ouida 1873
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I suppose the Government of India is the greatest _gobemouche_ in the world.
Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series George Robert Aberigh-Mackay 1864
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In fact, the term "English tourist" has come to mean the same as _gobemouche_ in France; and clever Pat knows well enough that there is not a fly in the whole region of fable which is too large for the brutal Saxon to swallow.
About Ireland 1860
whichbe commented on the word gobemouche
A credulous person, especially one who believes everything they hear.
May 12, 2008
malechi commented on the word gobemouche
Literally, this word refers to someone who swallows flies, that is, someone whose mouth is always open -- a silly, gullible person or a boor. It's also the name for a type of bird.
January 1, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word gobemouche
"There Was Once an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" - Cumulative verse employing a dose of situational irony, written by one Rose Bonne.
October 3, 2013
qms commented on the word gobemouche
"Deplorables" can mean the louche,
The wicked man coarsely uncouth,
Or simple unwise
Who swallows his lies,
The gullible, gaping gobemouche.
May 10, 2018