subs. phr. (old).—‘One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing the ears’; as adj. = wide-mouthed: ‘such persons do not hold their mouths by lease but have it from (y)ear to (y)ear’ (GROSE).
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. II. v. 3. She … if she do but laugh or smile, makes an ugly SPARROW-MOUTHED face.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus (1877), 31. Can you fancy that black-a-top, snub-nosed, SPARROW-MOUTH, paunch-bellied creature?
