foam at the mouth
foam at the mouth (metaphor)
/foʊm æt ðə maʊθ/
Variant
- froth at the mouth
Meaning
- to be extremely angry or agitated.
- to show intense, uncontrollable rage.
- to exhibit great fury and anger, often in an exaggerated way.
- to be furious or enraged to the point of losing control.
- to express outrage or intense anger, often vehemently.
Example Sentences
- The CEO began to foam at the mouth when he discovered the financial losses.
- She was foaming at the mouth when her project was reassigned without her consent.
- She was foaming at the mouth when she heard of her child’s misdeeds.
- He was foaming at the mouth when he realized that important papers had been stolen from his office.
- The boss was foaming at the mouth when the team could not deliver the work on time.
- He was foaming at the mouth when he heard about the cost of repairing the damage.
- She was foaming at the mouth when she heard that the decision had gone against her.
- He stood at his door, foaming at the mouth, and sprayed expletives at the miscreants who had damaged his lawn.
- When he found out about the robbery, he was foaming at the mouth with uncontrollable rage.
- The boy was foaming at the mouth, throwing things around, and destroying whatever came in his way.
Origin and History
The idiom “foam at the mouth” has evolved from a literal description of a symptom of rabies to a powerful metaphor for extreme anger, with its roots deeply embedded in both medical history and literary tradition.
The phrase originates from the physical symptoms observed in animals, particularly dogs, suffering from rabies. Rabies is a viral disease that affects the central nervous system, leading to symptoms like aggression, inability to swallow, and excessive saliva production, resulting in a frothy appearance around the mouth. This literal foaming at the mouth was a common and terrifying sight in both animals and, less commonly, humans affected by the disease.
Historical References
Documentation of the phrase dates back to the first millennium. The Lindisfarne Gospels, dated around 950 AD, contain a reference to foaming at the mouth: “Spumat faeme” which means “he foamed at the mouth.” Another early example can be found in an Old English version of Saint Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastical History of the English People, where a person possessed by the devil is described as having foam coming from their mouth while experiencing seizures. It indicates that the term was known and used in England from an early date.
Literary Usage
William Shakespeare popularized the phrase in his play “Julius Caesar” (1601). In this context, the phrase is used to describe Caesar’s epileptic fit:
“He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.”
Shakespeare’s usage indicates that the phrase had already transitioned into metaphorical use, describing someone in a state of uncontrollable physical distress or anger.
Evolution into Modern Idiom
By the 19th century, the phrase began to be used more commonly in its figurative sense to describe extreme anger. For example, an 1820 article in the Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser describes a man whose anger caused him to “foam at the mouth.”
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