Lip

Lip (a word common in various forms, to Teutonic languages, cf Ger. Lippe, Dan. laebe; Lat. labium is cognate), one of the two fleshy protuberant edges of the mouth in man and other animals, hence transferred to such objects as resemble a lip, the edge of a circular or other opening, as of a shell, or of a wound, or of any fissure in anatomy and zoology; in this last usage the Latin labium is more usually employed. It is also used of any projecting edge, as in coal-mining, &c. Many figurative uses are derived from the connexion with the mouth as the organ of speech. In architecture “lip moulding” is a term given to a moulding employed in the Perpendicular period, from its resemblance to an overhanging lip. It is often found in base mouldings, and is not confined to England, there being similar examples in France and Italy.