Skip to main content
mouth-watering

mouth-watering

5 2.7
Food that looks, smells, or tastes so good you want to eat it
  • adjective
  • /ˈmaʊθˌwɔːtərɪŋ/
translation icon : apetitoso
  • The chef prepared a mouth-watering feast that left everyone wanting more.
  • mouth-watering recipes
  • mouth-watering food
  • mouth-watering dessert

Imagine your first mouth watering bite and then throw it in the trash.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The burritos may be the most popular, but it's the tacos that get my mouth watering.

    Blog text (12)
  • Yeah, it's mouth watering and delicious.

  • Man, this has got my mouth watering.

  • The aromas from the kitchen were making her mouth water.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • It's been five years now since my last Runza, and this article made my mouth water.

    Blog text (12)
  • The smell of meat was mouth-watering.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Hearing them talk about the barbecue had my mouth watering.

    Blog text (5)
  • Foodies can look for popular dining places offering mouth-watering special treats.

    Blog text (15)
  • Clowns and kids alike can't resist the mouth-watering, lip-smacking taste of Mrs. Hockenburger's Butter Cookies.

  • Today's is a mouth-watering meal of memelas de calabasa (something like pumpkin crepes) with beans.

    Blog text (2)

Synonyms

yummy
vsmouth-watering
  • Informal
106 6.1

Very tasty and pleasant to eat

is neutral and also applies to smell or look to attract eating
appetizing
vsmouth-watering
16 3.5

Smelling or looking so good you want to eat it

is stronger making food extremely tempting by taste smell or appearance
mouthwatering
vsmouth-watering
4 3.2

So good in smell or look that you want to eat it

has identical meaning but is written with a hyphen

Antonyms

59 5.5

Causing strong dislike or disgust, like a very bad smell

4 4.8

Not looking, smelling, or tasting good so you do not want to eat it

How Appetizing

mouth-watering
5 2.7
scrumptious
17 3.7
delicious
419 1.0
tasty
175 1.0
appetizing
16 3.5

Surface Forms

mouth-watering positive
mouth-watering comparative
mouth-watering superlative

Morphology

mouth-watering = mouth + water (transparent) = mouth + water + ing

Clear compound of 'mouth' + 'water' with '-ing' on the second element; easily understood as 'causing the mouth to water' (i.e., appetizing).

Etymology

Mouth-watering comes from the simple image of mouth plus water: tasty food makes your mouth 'water', that is, 'make your mouth fill with liquid'. So when something is mouth-watering, it looks or smells so good you really want to eat it.