mouth
1. the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds
2. the system of organs surrounding this opening, including the lips, tongue, teeth, etc.
3. the visible part of the lips on the face
4. the point where a river issues into a sea or lake
5. the opening of a container, such as a jar
6. the opening of or place leading into a cave, tunnel, volcano, etc.
7. that part of the inner lip of a horse on which the bit acts, esp when specified as to sensitivity
8. Music the narrow slit in an organ pipe
9. the opening between the jaws of a vice or other gripping device
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
mouth
[mau̇th] (anatomy)
The oral or buccal cavity and its related structures.
(engineering acoustics)
The end of a horn that has the larger cross-sectional area.
(geography)
The place where one body of water discharges into another. Also known as influx.
The entrance or exit of a geomorphic feature, such as of a cave or valley.
(mining engineering)
The end of a shaft, adit, drift, entry, or tunnel emerging at the surface.
The collar of a borehole.
(science and technology)
Something resembling a mouth, that is, a place where one thing enters another or an opening at the receiving end of a container or enclosure.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Mouth
the part of a river that empties into a sea, lake, or another river. In rivers that dry out in their lower course, the place where the river terminates is designated the mouth.
Several types of mouth are distinguished. A simple mouth refers to the terminus of a river that does not divide into branches, such as the Tiber. Rivers may also terminate in deltas, as in the Nile; estuaries, as in the Thames; or limans, as in the Iuzhnyi Bug. A river may end in a discordant junction, which is characteristic of the tributaries of mountain rivers in which downcutting has been less intensive than in the principal river. If a river does not transport its waters to a sea, lake, or another river, it is sometimes said to terminate in a blind end.
Most large rivers that empty into a sea or large lake contain bars at the mouth; farther upriver are deep reaches that provide the customary wintering places for fish, such as the fish preserve pools in the Volga delta. The hydrological regime of river mouths is characterized by a complex variation in flow velocities, caused by such factors as ebb and flow, surge, increased flow rate during high water (ocean and lake rivers), and ice jams formed by drifting ice.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.