A person or thing that is stared at with amazement or derision; an object of ridicule or astonishment.
Compound of 'gaping' (from 'gap') and 'stock' (meaning 'a person'—as in 'laughingstock'). This follows the English pattern of using 'stock' to denote someone treated as a particular type of object for amusement.
This word shows how English creates insults by combining 'stock' with verbs describing reactions—we also have 'laughingstock' and 'mockingstock,' but 'gapingstock' specifically means someone so shocking that people literally stare at them with their mouths open.
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