gapeseed

[ geyp-seed, gap- ]

noun

, British Dialect.

1. a daydream or reverie.
2. an idealistic, impossible, or unreal plan or goal.
3. a person who gapes gape or stares in wonder, especially a rustic or unworldly person who is easily awed.
4. something that is gaped at; anything unusual or remarkable.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gapeseed¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; gape + seed

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. seek / plant / sow gapeseed,
   1. to daydream; woolgather.
   2. to plan, strive, or wish for impossible or unreal goals.

Example Sentences

I am come   abroad for a little gapeseed.

From Project Gutenberg

For she was not slow to discover that exhibitions, which were merely fashionable gapeseed to her niece, were to Nuttie real delights, viewed intelligently, and eliciting comments and questions that Lady Kirkaldy and even her husband enjoyed in their fresh interest, but which were unendurable weariness to Blanche, unless she had some one to chatter with.

From Project Gutenberg

Midsummer-manifold, each one Voluminous, a labyrinth of life, They keep their greenest musings, and the dim dreams That haunt their leafier privacies, Dissembled, baffling the random gapeseed still With blank full-faces, or the innocent guile Of laughter flickering back from shine to shade, And disappearances of homing birds, And frolicsome freaks Of little boughs that frisk with little boughs.

From Project Gutenberg