English

Alternative forms

• mouth-breather
• mouthbreather

Noun

mouth breather ‎(plural mouth breathers)

1. A person who routinely inhales and exhales through the mouth, instead of through the nose.
   • 1967, Nancy J. Barron, "A Ride in the Human Centrifuge," American Journal of Nursing, vol. 67, no. 8, p. 1654,

     Respirations cannot be recorded by this method, if the subject is a mouth breather (as no air flows by the thermistor in the nose).

2. (idiomatic, slang, derogatory) A person who is boorish, stupid, or otherwise unattractive.
   • 2004, Tim Goodman, "Trinkets are spirit guides in Fox's brilliant 'Wonderfalls'," San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar.

     She's a philosophy major from Brown, now working retail at Niagara Falls, living in a trailer and working for a "mouth breather" of a boss.