Word.ws English Dictionary

foam at the mouth

foam at the mouth verb: to spew saliva as foam.

Verb

foam at the mouth (third-person singular simple present foams at the mouth, present participle foaming at the mouth, simple past and past participle foamed at the mouth)

  1. To spew saliva as foam.
    • The servant, who had not stayed long enough to have crossed the court to Conrad’s apartment, came running back breathless, in a frantic manner, his eyes staring, and foaming at the mouth.1764, Horace Walpole, chapter I, in The Castle of Otranto
    • What I suffered with that rein for four long months in my lady's carriage, it would be hard to describe, but I am quite sure that, had it lasted much longer, either my health or my temper would have given way. Before that, I never knew what it was to foam at the mouth, but now the action of the...[1877], Anna Sewell, “A Strike for Liberty”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 109
  2. (figuratively) To rage, vent one's anger.
    • My lord,
      Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth. Lord Cloten,
      Upon my lady’s missing, came to me
      With his sword drawn; foam’d at the mouth, and swore,
      If I discover’d not which way she was gone,
      It was my instant death.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • “[…] when I returned from thrashing you I went storming through the house, kicking about the pots and pans, and foaming at the mouth in such a way that I not only stopped the spies laughing, but put them in fear of their lives.”1887, R. M. Ballantyne, chapter 12, in The Fugitives, or The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar

Synonyms of foam at the mouth

Forms of foam at the mouth

third-person singular presentfoams at the mouth
present participlefoaming at the mouth
past participlefoamed at the mouth
pastfoamed at the mouth

Questions about foam at the mouth

What does foam at the mouth mean?
Foam at the mouth means to spew saliva as foam.
What part of speech is foam at the mouth?
Foam at the mouth is a verb.
What is the past tense of foam at the mouth?
The past tense of foam at the mouth is foamed at the mouth.

Words near foam at the mouth in the dictionary

  1. foaling
  2. foalings
  3. foalish
  4. foals
  5. foam
  6. foam at the mouth
  7. foam bath
  8. foam baths
  9. foam board
  10. foam cell
  11. foam cells

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foam at the mouth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-foam at the mouth.wav.

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