Meaning & use
watering mouth
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phrase
The condition of your mouth filling with saliva because you see, smell, or think about tasty food.
Grammar: Often used with a possessive adjective: my watering mouth, his watering mouth. The more common pattern is 'make someone's mouth water' or 'my mouth is watering'.
Patterns
- a watering mouth
- make someone's mouth water
- someone's mouth is watering
The smell of fresh bread gave me a watering mouth.
Just looking at the cake made her mouth water.
My mouth was watering as I walked past the pizza shop.
Common combinations
- make someone's mouth water
- The pictures of the dessert really made my mouth water.
- mouth-watering
- They served a mouth-watering selection of cheeses.
- leave someone with a watering mouth
- The cooking show left me with a watering mouth.
Synonyms and how they differ
- salivating
- This is the technical or scientific word for producing saliva; 'watering mouth' is the everyday phrase.
Word family
- mouth-watering adjective
- Describes food that looks or smells extremely good.
- water verb
- Of the mouth or eyes: to produce liquid.
Commonly confused: watering mouth or water mouth?
watering mouth vs water mouth
This is not a standard phrase. The correct expression uses the -ing form: watering mouth.
Practice
The smell of the barbecue made my mouth ______.
Choose one answer.
'Made my mouth water' is the fixed expression, using the base verb after 'make'. 'Watering' would be wrong because the structure is 'make something do something'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “watering mouth”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.