Brewer's: Manduce

(2 syl.). the idol Gluttony, venerated by the Gastrolaters, people whose god was their belly.

“It is a monstrous ... figure, fit to frighten little children; its eyes are bigger than its belly, and its head larger than all the rest of its body, ... having a goodly pair of wide jaws, lined with two rows of teeth, which, by the magic of a small twine ... are made to clash, chatter, and rattle against the other, as the jaws of St. Clement's dragon (called graulli) on St. Mark's procession at Metz.” —Rabelais Pantagruel, iv. 59.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content