gap 
By these means I leave no gap for heresy, schisms, or 
errors. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. . 
From the gaps and chasms , . . 
Came men and women in dark clusters round. 
Tennyson, Sea Dreams. 
Specifically 2. A deep sloping ravine, notch, 
or cleft cutting a mountain-ridge. The term is 
especially common in the central portion of the Appala- 
chian range, where such openings are of frequent occur- 
rence and are important features in the topography. The 
principal gaps have specific names, as Manassas Gap and 
Thoroughfare Gap in Virginia. Where such a gap is a 
through cut, penetrating to the mountain's base, and giv- 
ing passage, as it then usually does, to a stream, it is called 
^water-gap, as the Delaware Water-gap in Pennsylvania; 
when it indents only the upper part of the ridge, it is called 
a wind-gap. See notch. 
3. In general, any hiatus, breach, or interrup- 
tion of consecuti veness or continuity : as, a gap 
in an argument. 
If you violently proceed against him, mistaking his pur- 
pose, it would make a great gap in your own honour. 
Shak., Lear, i. 2. 
It is seldom that the scheme of his [St. Paul's] discourse 
makes any gap. Locke, Epistle to Galatians, Pref. 
There was no gap, no breach, no unrecorded interme- 
diate state of things, between the end of the Roman power 
and the beginning of the Teutonic power. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 122. 
4. See the extract, and break-lathe. 
A gap Is an expedient for ... enabling a lathe to take 
in articles of much greater diameter . . . without mate- 
rially increasing its weight or general dimensions. 
C. P. B. Shelley, Workshop Appliances, p. 188. 
Foliar gap. See foliar. To stand In the gap, to ex- 
pose one's self for the protection of something ; be pre- 
pared to resist assault or ward off danger. 
I sought for a man . . . that should . . . stand in the 
gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. 
Ezek. xxii. 30. 
To stop a gap, to secure a weak point ; repair a defect ; 
supply a temporary expedient. 
His policy consisU in setting traps, 
In finding ways and means, and stopping gaps. 
gap (gap), v. t. ; pret. and pp. gapped, ppr. gap- 
ping. [<gap,n.j 1. To notch or jag; cut into 
teeth like those of a saw. 
He [uncle Toby] had no conception that the thing was 
any more to be made a mystery of than if Mrs. Wadman 
had given him a cut with a gap'd knife. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vi. 65. 
I will never meet at hard-edge with her ; if I did ... 
I should be confoundedly gapped. 
Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison, 1. 120. 
2. To make a break or opening in, as a fence, 
a wall, or any mass of matter. 
2453 
May that ground gape, anil swallow me alive. 
Shak., 3 Hen. VI., I. 1. 
Oh, but your wounds, 
How fearfully they gape .' and every one 
To me is a sepulchre. Fletcher, Sea Voyage, ii. 1. 
He could see ... 
A cavern 'mid the cliff gape gloomily. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 360. 
To gape after, (a) To stare at in wonder, as at some- 
thing which has just passed by. (6t) To stand in eager 
expectation of ; covet ; desire ; long for. 
As if thou ware abydande or gapand after sum qwent 
stirrynge, or sum wondirfull felynge ythire than thou 
hase had. Hampole, Prose Treatises (E. E. T. S.), p. 41. 
Alwey hir crewel ravyne, devowrynge al that the! nan 
getyn, sheweth other gapyngei: that is to seyn, gapen and 
desyren yit after mo richesses. 
Chaucer, Boethius, ii. meter 2. 
He seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 356. 
What shall we say of those who spend days in gaping 
after court favour and preferments ? Sir R. L' Estrange. 
To gape at. (a) To stare at in wonder. 
Ye fools, that wear gay clothes, love to be gap'd at, 
What are you better when your end calls on you? 
Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, Iii. 2. 
The man that's hang'd preaches his end, 
And sits a sign for all the world to gape at. 
Fletcher, Bonduca, iv. 3. 
(&t) To covet, desire ; long for. 
Many have gaped at the church revenues ; but, before 
they could swallow them, have had their mouths stopped 
iu the churchyard. South, Sermons. 
To gape for or upon, to stand in eager expectation of ; 
be ready to take, seize, or devour. 
All men know that we be here gathered, and with most 
fervent desire they anheale, breathe, and gape for the 
fruit of our convocation. 
Latimer, Sermons and Remains, I. 51. 
Only the lazy sluggard yawning lies 
Before thy threshold gaping for thy dole. 
Careiff, Co3lum Britannicum. 
The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain, 
And drinks, and gapes for Drink again. 
Cowley, Anacreontics, ii. 
Thou, who gap'stfor my estate, draw near; 
For I would whisper somewhat in thy ear. 
Dryden, tr. of Persius. 
ee starel. 
. [< gape, v.~\ 1. The act of 
gar 
Blue-billed Gaper (Cytnbirhynchux macrorkynchus]. 
4. A gaping clam; a bivalve mollusk of the 
family Myidce, as Mya truncata. it has a suboval 
shell, the valves of which gape or dispart and are trun- 
cated at the small end and swollen at tne other. The sur- 
face is wrinkled concentrically and covered with a pale- 
greenish epidermis, which is continued over the siphons 
It is a common inhabitant of the North Atlantic coasts, and 
lives buried in the sand in an upright position, especially 
at the mouths of rivers and estuaries near low-water mark. 
At ebb-tide it shows its presence by a hole in the sand left 
when it withdraws its siphon, and it is found by digging 
to the depth of a foot or more. These clams are exten- 
sively used for the table and for bait. Along the eastern 
coast of the United States the gaper is commonly known 
as the soft clam, or in more northern ranges simply as the 
clam. (See cut under Myidtf.) It has many synonyms in 
Great Britain : as, at Chichester, pullet ; at Southampton. 
old-maid; at Belfast, cockle-brillion ; at Dublin, collier; 
at Youghal, sugar-loon. On the Pacific coast of the United 
States the term gaper is applied to various similar bivalves, 
as species of Glycymeris, Saxidomus, and Schizothcerus. 
gape-seed (gap'sed), n. That which induces 
gaping or staring; a cause of ignorant wonder 
or astonishment ; a popular marvel. [Humor- 
ous.] 
These [the Harlequins and Jack-Puddings in Bartholo- 
mew Fair], tho' they pretend to be thought fools, will not 
be the only fools there, nor to be compar'd with those 
who, in an eager pursuit after diversion, stand with their 
eyes and their mouths open, to take in a cargo of gape- 
seed, while some a little too nimble for them pick their 
pockets. Poor ftobin, 1735. 
The mind is not here kept in a perpetual gape after 
knowledge. Addison. 
Ready ! take aim at their leaders their masses are gapp'd 
with our grape. Tennyson, Defence of Lucknow, iii. 
tus of any kind in 
lose consecutiveness or continuity. 
If we omit the semi-tones, these series will represent the 
five keys of the gapped scale ; if we do not omit them, we 
have the five melodic families of tones, which, like the 
gapped scale, were developed from a circle of fifth.-. 
W. K. Sullivan, I '' 
. . _ . i'- or ga'ping), p. a. Standing wide 
open, as the mouth, or having the mouth wide 
open, as in wonder or admiration. 
Into Robin Hoods gaping mouth 
He presentlie powrde some deale [part] 
Robin Hood and the Peddlers (Child's Ballads, V. 247). 
These gaping wounds, not taken as a slave, 
Speak Pompey's loss. 
Fletcher (and another), p'alse One, i. 1. 
2. A fit of yawning : commonly in the plural. 
Another hour of music was to give delight or the gapes, 
as real or affected taste for it prevailed. 
Jane Austen, Persuasion, xx. 
3. In sool. : (a) The width of the mouth when 
, _ opened; the interval between the upper and 
d. i cause a hiatus of any kind in; cause to under mandibles; the rictus, or commissural gapmgly (ga -orga pmg-h), adv. In a gaping 
line. See first cut under 6il. (6) The gap or manner; with open-mouthed wonder or curi- 
interval between the valves of a bivalve mol- 
lusk where the edges of the valves do not fit 
together when the shell is shut. See gaper, 4. 
, Int. to O'Curry's Anc. Irish, p*. dixxiii. 
gape (gap or gap), v. i. pret. and pp. gaped, 
ppr. gaping. [< ME. gapen, appar. not < AS. 
"geapian, or "geapan (which occurs but once in 
It is a frivolous pleasure to be the admiration of gaping 
crowds. Steele, Spectator, No. 188. 
osity. 
I hearkened to it by the hour, napinnlu hearkened and 
'-- " TheC 
let my cigarette go out. 
t Century, XXVII. 36. 
At the edges of this gape of the shell [of the fresh-water gaping-stock (ga'ping-stok), n. A person or 
mussel) the thickened margins of a part of the contained thing that is an object of open-mouthed won- 
boily which is called the mantle become visible. 
Huxley and Martin, Elementary Biology, p. 305. 
der, curiosity, or the like. 
I was to be a gaping-stock and a scorn to the young 
volunteers. Godwin. 
presence of a nematoid worm or strongyle (Sy- gap-lathe (gap'laTH), n. Same as break-lathe, 
gamus trachealis) in the windpipe, attended by gap-toothed (gap'totht), a. Having gaps in 
frequent gaping as a symptom. the line of teeth; wanting some of the teeth. 
a'doubtful gloss "geapan, pandere," connected 4 - 1' 1 - A disease of young poultry, caused by the 
with geap or gedp, wide, broad, spacious, used > c <""" > "* -i *-" * -* '- ' ".. 
only in poetry), but of Seand. origin, like the 
related gap; < Icel. gapa = Sw. gapa = Dan. ,~ .- > , 
gabe = D. gapen = MHG. gaffen, G. gaffen, gape, gape-eyed (gap id), a. In herpet., naked-eyed ; A gray and gap-tooth'd man as lean as death 
yawn. Cf. gap, n.~\ 1. To open the mouth in- navin g apparently no eyelids: as, the gape- Tennyson, Vision of Si 
voluntarilyof as the result of'wearinessi sleepi- e ^ skmks, lizards of the family Gymnophthal- gap-window (gap'win'do), n. A long, narrow 
ness, or absorbed attention ; yawn. mam. window. E. H. Knight. 
Gape not too wide, lest you disclose your Gum.. gape-gaze (gap gaz), r. i. To gaze with open gar l (gar), . [< ME. gar, later gore (the form 
Congreoe, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. outn. LTOV. Jing.J :-: -- i.-n ^-i 
According to the inducing cause of the gaping, the verb, 
without losing its literal meaning, usually takes on an ad- 
ditional specific sense, (a) To yawn from sleepiness, wea- 
riness, or dullness. 
She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, 
And asks if it be time to rise. 
Swift. 
gar remaining in comp. garbill, garfish, garlic 
T' most part o' girls as has looks like hers are always (q. V.), or in proper names (see def. 1), the vow- 
yes, an " t 8 ^ e what ^is el^ orig. long, being shortened before the two 
, y ers, xii. consonants or when unaccented), < AS. gar, 
A fish, the com- ME. gar, gore, a spear: see gore^, and of. gar- 
lic.] If. A spear: an element in certain proper 
gapemouth ( 
mon bass. [ 
ap'mouth), . 
cotch.] 
(i.) To open the mouth for food, as young birds Hence *g. per ( $*'~ . r & '^' n : l - One who gapes, as names of Anglo-Saxon origin, as Edgar (AS. 
/v\ T,, _..iu i_ .. ironi KlPPmnpss. flrnwsiTiPSS. or nuimpae m i-n tcAAmX* Vm-.-m-r .-,- r. .,.,,..... \ i,'ji..7 
r iu upcn van inuuui lor loou. as yOuujZ Minis Hence . i * j j n VT* ""&*" " u -*-"-*2/"' \-**.w. 
(c) To open the mouth in eager expectation; expect from sleepiness, drowsiness, or dullness, or in Eadgar, happy or fortunate spear), Ethelgar 
, ai f ,. ho... . ..,.*>, . .*.. wonder, astonishment, longing desire, or ex- (AS. Aethelgar, noble spear), etc. 2 [Abbr 
pectation. of garfish.] A garfish ; one of several differ- 
I have not seen sutnruT dCte?aW ?"* 6lihe *> *mtfng to different orders, which 
Follow him like a prize : there's no true gaper nave a Ion g sharp snout or beak, likened to 
Like to your citizen. a spear; a bill-fish : as, the common gar, Be- 
Fletcher (and another), Noble Gentleman, iii. 3. lone vulgaris ; especially, in the United States, 
await, or hope for, with the intent to receive or devour' 
See phrases below. 
They have gaptd upon me with their mouth. 
Job xvi. 10. 
Others still gape V anticipate 
The cabinet-designs of fate. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, II. iii. 23. 
(d) To stand with open mouth in wonder, astonishment, or 
admiration ; stand and gaze ; stare. See phrases below, and 
gaping. 
Whan y cam to that court y gaped aboute. 
Piers Plowman's Cre'de (E. E. T. S.), 1. 156. 
Don't stand gaping, but live and learn, my lad. 
Steele, Lying Lover, i. 1. 
2. To open as a gap, fissure, or chasm ; split 
open; become fissured; show a fissure. 
I marvel the ground gapes not and devours us. 
l.niiiarr, nth Sermon bet. F,dw. VI., 1549. 
2. In ornith.: (a) One of the Eurykemidte; 
a broadbill: as, the blue-billed gaper, Cym- 
birhynchus mrtcrorhynchus. See cut in next col- 
umn. (6) pi. Fissirostral birds, as swallows 
and the like: a literal translation of Hiantes, 
one of the names of the old group Fissirostres. 
Serranida;. So called because the fish in its death-agony 
erects its fins and opens its mouth and thus stiffens, as is 
commonly seen in many of the spiny-rayed acanthoptery 
gian fishes. Day. Also called comber. 
, 
a ganoid fish of the family Lepidosteida; a gar- 
pike Alligator-gar, Levidostms tristcechue, the lar- 
gest kind of garpike, attaining a length of 10 feet, found 
in the rivers from Illinois to Mexico and Cuba : so called 
from its size and general aspect, particularly the shape of 
the head. Also called manjuari. Broad-nosed gar, 
Lepidotteus plattistomus, a garpike resembling the fol- 
~ 3 A . 6 *"? Mlla ' a fish of th * f ly iSSSf ^ to?S?5SrfV^ tTltiS'ofUi'erh' 1 
See cut on following page. Long-nosed gar, Lepidos- 
teus osseus, the common garpike or bill-fish, attaining a 
, g 
length of 5 feet, of which the head is about one third, 
found in North America from the great lakes to Carolina 
