Maws

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The jaws or gaping mouths of animals, often used to describe predatory or voracious creatures
2. The open or hollow parts of something, particularly when referring to the mouth of a creature or entity
3. A term indicating the wide, often frightening entrance or cavity of something, especially in a metaphorical or literal sense

Etymology: The plural of "maw," which first meant the stomach, not the mouth. Old English "maga" referred to the belly, a sense it shares with German "Magen" and Dutch "maag," all from a Germanic root. Over the Middle English period the word spread to the gullet and then to the open mouth of an animal, so the sense "jaws" came from moving the meaning up the digestive tract. The plural "maws" is simply the regular form of the noun.

Synonyms: jaws, mouths, gullets