mouthing

mouthing

1. present participle and gerund of mouth
2. present participle and gerund of mouthe

mouthing (plural mouthings)

1. The act of forming a shape with the mouth, especially as part of sign language.
   • 2013, Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron, Ceil Lucas, The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, page 382:

     Mouthings tend to occur most often when signers are manually articulating nouns, open-class items, and morphologically simpler signs (see Crasborn et al. 2008).

2. Ranting; passionate speech devoid of meaning.
   • 1941, Players Magazine:

     Kearn did not rant, he did not deafen you with heroics and empty mouthings.