British Slang For Mouth (16 Examples!)

We do a lot with our mouths – eating, breathing, talking, droning on about this, that or the other.

Unsurprisingly, most local lingos tend to come up with a lot of different slang terms to describe this most versatile of body parts.

Britain is no different, with slang terms old and new used throughout the country.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the popular, some of the obscure, some of the old and some of the new slang terms for mouth.

Let’s get started.

In This Article

Gob

Starting off with what is undoubtedly one of the most common slang terms for mouth in Britain, we have gob.

This is a catch-all term for a mouth, though it can certainly be used in a derogatory way in some contexts.

It’s used throughout Britain, from Scotland through Wales to England.

It could be something you use when telling someone to be quiet, it could be used to talk about someone eating too much, or it could even just be used to describe a mouth physically.

“She’s got such a big gob,” for example.

This could mean metaphorically, in that she talks too much, or it could be literally.

The word itself is very old and ultimately derives from Irish. It seems to have been first introduced into English sometime in the 16th Century and was first recorded in English in the 1540s.

In Irish it simply meant mouth, though it was also related to the older English word “gob” which meant “a mouthful,” first recorded in the 14th Century.

Trap

Next we have “trap,” another very common slang term used for mouth in Britain.

Functionally, this one is very similar to gob, although you are less likely to use this one in the context of food and eating.

It’s typically used to tell someone to shut up and has the sense of a “trap” from which secrets emerge that you might not want them to.

This one is also used throughout Britain and understood just about everywhere.

Again, it’s definitely somewhat derogatory and confrontational, so you want to be careful with how you use it.

“Next time I tell you a secret, keep your trap shut,” for example.

We can see that this slang term was first recorded in 1776 and the end of the 18th Century.

Doubtless, it goes back at least a few decades prior to this, as this period was really the first time large-scale dictionaries were being produced.

Beyond that, we don’t really know where it came from, though it most likely relates to the idea of a trap door.

North and south

Another slang term for mouth which is a lot more regional in Britain is “north and south”.

This is an example of Cockney rhyming slang, a particular cant used in the East End of London and really not at all outside of this small area.

Nonetheless, the slang is very widely known. It is formed in precisely the way it sounds–taking a word or phrase that rhymes with the word you are actually indicating: “mouth” rhyming with “north and south”.

“I’ll punch him in the north and south next time,” for example.

The phrase was popularized by a 1906 music hall song written by R.P. Weston, though it may have predated this. I

t’s hard to say, but this is certainly when it first came into popular use.

Hole

A common convention in British slang with mouths is to refer to them as one form or another of “hole”.

There are a few forms but the simple “hole” is probably the most common, used throughout Britain and intuitively understandable by most.

Again, it functions like “gob” or “trap,” though usually relating to someone who needs to shut up rather than to eating.

“Shut your hole or I’ll shut it for you,” for example.

Given that your mouth is literally a hole, it’s very hard to say with any accuracy when this term started being used.

It is most likely very, very old, predating any written records recording its first usage.

The word “hole” itself goes all the way back to Old English and even Proto-Germanic which is where it first had the sense of an orifice.

Cakehole

Similarly, a common slang term for mouth used in Britain today is “cakehole”.

This one is not as commonly used as it once was but is certainly still widely used and understood.

Again, as you can probably guess, it is more than a little derogatory and tends to be used when one person is more than a little annoyed at another.

It can relate both to eating and to talking too much, though again it’s perhaps more likely to be used in the latter way.

“I’m sorry for what I said, I’ll keep my cakehole shut in future,” for example.

It was originally formed as the phrase “shut your cakehole” in the 20th Century, though its precise origin is not clear.

Many believe it was originally an Air Force phrase, as it was printed in a 1943 book of service slang. It’s hard to say, but it likely predates this by at least a few decades.

Naturally, it refers to the mouth as the hole into which cake goes.

Piehole

In a similar vein, next we have “piehole”. This one is functionally very similar, if not identical, to cakehole.

It was originally American but has taken on a life of its own in modern British slang and is very commonly used throughout Britain today.

Again, it’s more than a little derogatory and tends to imply a lot, so you don’t want to go around using this one all the time.

“Shut your pilehole, please, I’m trying to concentrate,” for example.

The earliest uses of this term seem to only go as far back as the 1980s.

Given the seniority of “cakehole,” this term probably simply emerged as a variation on that phrase.

“Pie” is, in many ways, considered a more quintessentially American dish, but this did not stop it from spreading to Britain.

Laughing gear

Another slang term for your mouth in British English is your “laughing gear”.

This one is used primarily in Britain but also throughout Australia and New Zealand.

In Britain, it’s mostly considered to be Cockney slang although it’s widely understood just about everywhere.

It plainly refers to the fact that your mouth is what you do your laughing with, thus “laughing gear”.

“His laughing gear was working overtime last night, I couldn’t get a word in,” for example.

The precise origin of this one is, again, not clear.

We can see that it was being used by the 1970s and this may have been when it first originated, and this was in the East End of London.

Beyond that, there’s not much we can say with any precision about its origin.

Chops

“Chops” is another common, if somewhat antiquated, slang term for mouth in British English.

It’s definitely not as common as it once was but in any case is still universally understood.

It’s a fairly neutral phrase, not inherently indicating anything positive or negative, though nonetheless one that many people could find dubious or offensive if used inappropriately.

A popular French animated kid’s series called Watch My Chops became very popular in England around the early 2000s and featured a talking dog.

“His chops were wagging after a couple of drinks last night,” for example.

This slang term is rather old, though of uncertain origin.

Originally it referred to the sides of your face or your jaws, similarly to the idea of “jowls” on dogs.

This is recorded from at least the 16th Century, and is most likely a variant of the word “chaps” which had the same sense.

Where these terms come from, though, is not clear.

Neb

Another somewhat antiquated term but which is nonetheless still in use by many British people is “neb”.

You may not be understood if you use this one to younger generations, or even older generations in the wrong region of Britain.

It simply is a stand-in for the word mouth and doesn’t carry any specific connotations on its own, whether positive or negative.

“You’ve got a little something on your neb,” for example.

This one is another very old term in origin.

Originally, the Old English term nebb referred to a bird’s bill, and slightly later, though still in the same period of English, referred to a person’s face or countenance.

It’s thought to have been influenced by “nibble,” although ultimately its origin is unclear.

Hatch

A more common slang term in Britain today is “hatch”.

This again is very similar to something like “trap”, simply referencing the fact that the mouth is an orifice that can open and close.

You’ll certainly be understood by most people in Britain if you use this one to refer to a mouth, and this is most commonly used in the context of eating.

Particularly, you might use it when trying to get young children to eat their food. “Come on, down the hatch!” for example.

Another old one, this slang term appears to have been in use by at least the 16th Century.

Originally, as far as we can tell, it related to a proverb regarding thinking before speaking.

So, like “trap”, its original sense was more to do with keeping your mouth shut when you ought to and not speaking too much.

Yap

Next we have “yap”, a common slang phrase for mouth in Britain.

Again, this one is perhaps more commonly associated with U.S. English but is very common in Britain and the word itself certainly originated there.

It’s another one with more than subtle negative undertones, the kind of thing you would say to someone when you are frustrated with them for not keeping their mouth shut.

“Will you shut your yap next time? You nearly blew that for us,” for example.

The original sense of this word, which it does still retain to the modern day, is of the noise made by a small dog.

This usage was recorded in the 1660s, and it’s believed that even then it was used to refer to people who talk too much and can’t keep their mouth shut.

It was adopted into wider American use in the 20th Century.

Maw

Another one you may hear in certain contexts in British slang is “maw”.

This one does skirt the edges of being true slang, as it is a standard word that refers to the jaws and mouth of a particularly voracious animal. In slang, this meaning has been expanded on to refer to a person’s mouth, particularly that of a greedy person.

So, again, you want to be careful with how you use this one. “He’s just shoveling those donuts into his gaping maw,” for instance.

The word seems to derive from Middle English as far back as we can tell, though it is likely at least a bit older.

The Middle English maue, meaning stomach, derived from the Old English maga with the same meaning.

The sense of mouth and throat comes from the 14th Century and is passed down largely unchanged to modern English.

Hashtrap

Less common, somewhat old fashioned but certainly still in use today is “hashtrap”.

This is a slang expression of highly dubious origin, and if only because of its relation to the more widespread “trap” broadly understood in Britain if less used.

Again, it is certainly not an entirely friendly way to refer to someone’s mouth, so you want to be a little careful with it.

“If she doesn’t shut her hashtrap next time I’m on the phone I’ll be really angry,” for example.

“Hash” has a variety of meanings, though doubtless the one being referenced in this slang phrase is the food.

The earliest written example we have of this phrase comes, from all places, in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel The Spy Who Loved Me.

This was published in 1962, so doubtless it precedes this by some time, though how far we have very little way of saying for sure.

Potato trap

Another very similar phrase for a mouth in British slang is “potato trap”.

Again, the sense is about food and though they weren’t brought to England until relatively recently, potatoes have made up a staple part of the British diet for a very long time.

Your mouth is a “potato trap” because you throw potatoes into it. “I’m starving, can’t wait to stuff my potato trap,” for example,

Unsurprisingly, this one derives from Irish.

Potatoes have a long and storied history in Ireland with the devastating potato famine, so it’s clear that potatoes have been an even bigger part of the Irish diet.

It was first recorded in a slang dictionary published in 1873, so it was doubtless in use in Britain before the start of the 20th Century.

Kisser

Another popular and common slang phrase for mouth in Britain is “kisser”.

This one is mostly used among the older generations today, and is also used in other parts of the English speaking world like the U.S.

Again, unsurprisingly, you’ll want to be a bit cautious with how you use this one.

Though it’s not necessarily derogative, it certainly can be. “I punched him right in the kisser after he said that to me,” for example,

The word itself goes back to at least the 1530s, although it originally simply meant “one who kisses”.

The slang term for mouth isn’t recorded until the 1860s, though it no doubt precedes this by some time.

It arose out of the older phrase and simply refers to the fact your mouth does the kissing.

Geggi

Finally we have “geggi”, a common Scottish slang term for mouth which is primarily used in Glasgow.

There are not many connotations attached to this word and, though it’s highly informal, is just used in a variety of ways to refer to someone’s mouth.

Whether it’s eating or talking, your mouth is a geggi.

“He never stops flapping that geggi of his, does he?” for example,

It’s an old word with many different meanings all surrounding the mouth and peripheral organs.

It seems to have originally referred to an animal’s mouth and the opening through which they would eat.

Written references to the slang term meaning a person’s mouth are extremely scant, so we have no clear idea of when it came into use in Scottish English.

Whether you want to tell someone to shut their trap, or you want to convince a picky child to eat their food, there are plenty of options for talking about mouths in British slang.

You naturally want to be careful with how you use some of these, as some are definitely considered to be derogatory.

But in any case it gives you lots of options for speaking about mouths in Britain.

More in British Slang

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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