gobemouche
Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- noun Literally, a fly swallower; hence, once who keeps his mouth open; a boor; a silly and credulous person.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A gaping simpleton who believes everything that he hears; a credulous person.
Examples
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It was only a gobemouche of a Bavarian that could ever have been induced to accept it.
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Firm and steady, now, fair partner mine, whiles we run that _gobemouche_ down and trample him miserably.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales
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Not like your Albion -- if it is yours -- who is a great gobemouche stuffed full of cotton, steaming with fog, clutching gold with one hand and the Bible with the other, that she may swell her money-bags, and seem a saint all the same; never laughing, never learning, always growling, always shuffling, who is like this spider -- look!
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In fact, the term "English tourist" has come to mean the same as _gobemouche_ in France; and clever Pat knows well enough that there is not a fly in the whole region of fable which is too large for the brutal Saxon to swallow.
Note
The word 'gobemouche' comes from French, literally 'fly-swallower'.
