different between gape vs behold

English

Etymology

Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gap?n? (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *???h?b-. Cognates include Russian ???? (zjapa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?p/
• Rhymes: -e?p

Verb

gape (third-person singular simple present gapes, present participle gaping, simple past and past participle gaped)

1. (intransitive) To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
   • 1723, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 1810, Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 11, page 467,

     She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, / And asks if it be time to rise;
2. (intransitive) To stare in wonder.
3. (intransitive) To open wide; to display a gap.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Third Part of King Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 1, 1807, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (editors),The plays of William Shakspeare, Volume X, page 291,

     May that ground gape, and swallow me alive, / Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father!

   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:

     "Nor is he deterr'd from the belief of the perpetual flying of the Manucodiata, by the gaping of the feathers of her wings, (which seem thereby less fit to sustain her body) but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed in Kites hovering in the Aire, as he saith, for a whole hour together without any flapping of their wings or changing place."

   • a. 1699, John Denham, Cato Major, Of Old Age: A Poem, 1710, page 25,

     The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes:

4. (intransitive, of a cat) To open the passage to the vomeronasal organ, analogous to the flehming in other animals.
5. (pornography) To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

Translations

Noun

gape (countable and uncountable, plural gapes)

1. (uncommon) An act of gaping; a yawn.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

2. A large opening.
3. (uncountable) A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
4. The width of an opening.
5. (zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.

Derived terms

• agape

Translations

Anagrams

• PAGE, Page, page, peag

Dutch

Verb

gape

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of gapen

Anagrams

• page

Northern Sotho

Adverb

gape

1. again

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (imperative gap, present tense gaper, passive gapes, simple past gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, present participle gapende)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

   gap opp! - open wide! (e.g. at the dentist)

References

• “gape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• gapa

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (present tense gapar or gaper, past tense gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, passive infinitive gapast, present participle gapande, imperative gap)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

References

• “gape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Etymology

From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan (“to hold, have, occupy, possess, guard, preserve, contain, belong, keep, observe, consider, behold, look at, gaze on, see, signify, avail, effect, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihaldan? (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- +? hold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian behoolde (“to keep”), Dutch behouden (“to keep, restrain, preserve”), German behalten (“to keep, restrain, remember”), Danish and Norwegian beholde (“to keep”) and Swedish behålla (“to keep”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??h??ld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??ho?ld/

Verb

behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)

1. (transitive) To see or look at, esp. appreciatively; to descry, look upon.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
2. (intransitive) To look.
3. (transitive) To contemplate.

Usage notes

Rarely used in informal speech. The past participle beholden now has a meaning detached from the other forms of the word.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:look

Derived terms

• beholder
  • eye of the beholder

Translations

Interjection

behold

1. look, a call of attention to something
2. lo!

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:lo

Translations

References

• behold in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• behold in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b?e?h?l?]

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German beholt, behalt, from the verb beholden; see also Danish beholde.

Noun

behold c (uninflected)

1. (archaic) haven, refuge

   in the phrases i behold (“intact”) and i god behold (“safe”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde