Upper lip

“ A mouth with full lips, but in which one side of the lower lip is larger and fuller than the other, was said by the old writers to denote ardour in love and general sensuousness. It is one of the signatures of Venus.
A wart just above the upper lip shows a coarse and cruel nature; a mole in the same place, love of the opposite sex.
Of course, the shape and placing of the teeth are not without significance in the character given by the mouth. When the upper gum shows above the teeth directly the lips are open, it is a sign of a selfish and phlegmatic nature. ”

“ His mouth also marks a supreme sadness, which depresses the lower lip and seems to weigh upon it, while the upper lip, contracted from the top to the bottom, expresses at once both physical suffering and that of the soul. Under the mouth there is an expression of indignation that seems to protest against an undeserved suffering, and is revealed in the nostrils, which swell out and enlarge and draw upwards. ”

“ Of medium height and robust frame, with a keen, alert eye, a broad, thoughtful forehead, and a wonderfully sagacious mouth, the upper lip slightly covering the under one at the corners, he at once arrests your attention, and your eye unconsciously follows him as he makes his way through the crowd, with a friendly word for this man and an elegant rapier-thrust for that. ”

“ The gently curved, round, broad nose projects but little over the upper lip, which, instead of preparing the close of the oval towards the chin, is pushed forward like the lower lip, upward and outward. ”

“ The same causes apply naturally to both lips, whether the defect be unilateral, bilateral, or median. Some of these deformities are more often met with than others, as, for instance, a median deficiency of the upper lip following cicatricial contraction due to a harelip operation [315] done early in life; in elderly patients a partial paralysis is found to affect one half the upper and sometimes a part of the lower lip, giving to the mouth a drooped and grinning appearance. ”

“ The lips, too, are singularly pensive in their mode of falling down at the sides, although there is no want of richness and vigor in their central fullness of curve. The upper lip, from the nose downward, is separated by a very deep line, which gives a sort of leonine firmness of expression to all the lower part of the face. The cheeks are square and strong, in texture like pieces of marble, with the cheek-bones very broad and prominent. ”

“ The prolonged mouth-breathing imparts to adenoid patients a characteristic look in the face. The lower jaw is dropped and the lips are kept constantly apart. In many cases the upper lip is short, showing some part of the upper teeth. The dropping of the jaw draws upon the soft parts and tends to obliterate the natural folds of the face about the nose, lips, and cheeks. ”

“ They have delicate mouths which droop a little at the corners and the lips are thin, mobile and often a little apart; the upper lip is thicker and more projecting than the lower lip; the teeth are small and even. The chin is long, pointed and a little projecting at the lip. The head is oval in shape and full at the temples. ”

“ The bitter trait appears in the upper lip, as if the person were feeling a disagreeable, nauseating taste, and simultaneously the lower lip is pushed forward and upward, as if in the desire to remove an insignificant object from the neighborhood of the lips. ”

“ The upper lip has no furrow running down from the small and flat nose, but it is very large, and the mouth looks like a slit in the face when both lips are together. He has distinct eyelids; and when he sits and looks forwards, the chin reaches below the top of the breast and hides the neck. ”

“ The upper lip becomes much more prominent, forming of itself the anterior end of the body (fig. 47, ul) . The opening of the nasal pit is in this way relatively thrown back, and at the same time is caused to assume a dorsal position. This will be at once understood by a comparison of fig. 43 with fig. 47. On the inner side of the oral cavity a ring of papillæ is formed (fig. 47, or.p) . Dorsally these papillæ are continued forward as a linear streak on the under side of the upper lip. A communication between the oral cavity and the branchial sack is very soon established. ”

“ Nature did much for her, and art strove in vain to rival her with others; while health, that handmaid of beauty, supplied her eye and her cheek with the purest light and the freshest roses. Her short and rosy upper lip was slightly curled, with as much of maiden sanctity, perhaps, as pride; her white high forehead was shaded with locks of sunny brown, while her large and dark hazel eyes beamed with free and unaffected modesty. ”

“ They have made us stiffen our upper lip, and now we have got to keep it stiff—I mean the upper lip; and if you grow as you ought, five years will not pass away before your lips will be five times as thick as they are now. ”

“ The raising of the upper lip draws upwards the flesh of the upper parts of the cheeks, and produces a strongly marked fold on each cheek,—the naso-labial fold,—which runs from near the wings of the nostrils to the corners of the mouth and below them. ”

“ The upper lip is thin and curved; and when a grimace is made, it tightly embraces the teeth, so as to communicate a peculiarly wicked expression to the countenance. The maxillæ are broad, and the teeth are of glistening whiteness. ”

“ Harelip is a congenital deformity of the upper lip, characterised by a cleft extending for a variable depth, either through the soft tissues of the lip only, or implicating in addition the alveolus, floor of the nose, and palate. ”

“ An examination of the parents’ mouths should always be made when possible, and very commonly it will be found that one or both possess a short upper lip, and a high arched narrow palate. In others there is a slight groove in the alveolar process between the central and lateral incisors. I have also observed a small symmetrical crease on either side of the median line in the upper lip, indicating a tendency to, if not a natural intra-uterine cure of, a double harelip. ”

“ Wrinkles must be painted across the forehead, furrows down the cheeks, downward lines from the corners of the mouth, and (very important) three or four heavy wrinkles painted around the neck to give it the shriveled appearance common to old age. The hollow over the upper lip should be darkened, and also the hollow under the lower lip. ”

“ That chin was built on good fighting lines, though somewhat over-delicate in substance and the mouth quite colourless, but oddly enough the upper lip had that habitual appearance of stiff compression which is characteristic of highly strung temperaments; it is a noticeable feature of nearly every great actor, for instance. The nose was straight and very thin and in a strong sidelight a tracery of the red blood showed through at the nostrils. ”

“ As is always the case with a thoroughly attractive woman, her defect—the shortness of her upper lip and her half-open mouth—seemed to be her own special and peculiar form of beauty. ”

“ The nose rises from the broad brow pointing downward and outward, hiding the upper lip and possibly part of the mouth and chin. In this position we get the tip of the nose very well defined. If our model be a child, the width of the delicate nostrils is very apparent. ”

“ The nostrils should be dilated as much as possible, as a free, wide, open nose gives a free, well-rounded tone, while a contracted nostril induces the nasal tone so much dreaded. A proper training of the facial muscles makes this dilation possible. Lifting the upper lip and projecting it forward aids the action to a great degree.
There is a strong tendency to unity of action between the nostrils and the lips and the soft palate. ”

“ The chin is firm and rather full; but it expresses resolution and fitly ends this profile, royal if not divine. It is necessary to add that the upper lip beneath the nose is lightly shaded by a charming down. ”

“ The biting jaws move sideways; they usually have several pointed notches which serve as teeth. Why should the grasping jaws be beneath the chewing jaws? Why is it better for the lower lip to have fingers than the upper lip? ”

“ Among the Thlinkects, all the FREE-BORN female children have a slit cut in the upper lip in which a wire, piece of shell or wood is placed to distend the lip. The older she grows the larger the lip block is made and the more important is her place in society. ”

“ Different muscular groups especially those of the face are subject to local cramps. The upper lip may become distorted, convulsive smiles have been observed, also peculiar sucking motions. The children point their lips and flatten them again, sometimes for hours in succession. ”

“ This formation of the oral, combined with the fullness of the circumoral regions, and the length and fleshiness of the naked upper lip, communicates a peculiar animality to the countenance. The cheek-bones are high and bony ”

“ The little notch at the upper end they put in through the lip, where it remains between the lips and the teeth; the under part hangs down over their chin; this they commonly wear all day, and when they sleep they take it out. They have likewise holes bored in their ears, both men and women when young, and by constant stretching with great pegs they grow to be as big as milled five-shilling pieces. ”

“ Superciliousness is not safe after all, because a person who forms the habit of wearing it may some day find his lower lip grown permanently projected beyond the upper, so that he can't get it back, and must go through life looking like the King of Spain. ”

“ Of large frame, tall and broad-shouldered, with heavy massive face, high cheek-bones, a careworn dark blue eye, large straight nose, and compressed lips,—the under lip projecting slightly,—he would have been pointed out anywhere as a man not easily to be led. ”

“ The women suffer but little from this barbarous custom: a small spiral figure on each side the chin, a semicircular figure over each eye-brow, and two, or sometimes three lines, on each lip, are all they are required to submit to. Their lips are naturally thin, and well formed, but so preposterous are their ideas of beauty, that they endeavour to render them as thick as possible by this operation. ”

“ The lower lip, very full, does not pout, but falls curtain-like towards the chin. It is the lip of a sensualist, and yet of one whose sensuality has not clogged but stimulated the digestive processes of his brain. ”

“ In youth the cheek is slightly rounded out from the lip, and in a side view it is usually the outline of the cheek which makes the little line at the corner of the lips in the Lefebvre and the Grellet Young Girl, and always in the side view of a baby’s head; but as the head becomes less babyish it is the muscles of the lips which cause this line. The muscles of the lips are exactly like those of the eye ”

“ The lips, extending 15 to 20 feet in length, and 5 or 6 in height, and forming the cavity of the mouth, are attached to the under-jaw, and rise from the jaw-bones, at an angle of about 80 degrees, having the appearance, when viewed in front, of the letter U. The upper jaw, including the 'crown-bone,' or skull, is bent down at the extremity, so as to shut the front and upper parts of the cavity of the mouth, and is overlapped by the lips in a squamous manner at the sides. ”

“ Where should be the nose, was seen only a blackened cavity—the cheek had sloughed off during life, and presented only a spongy and half decayed bone—around the eyes which were imperfectly closed, was a dark putrid line, while the throat was swollen, and what remained of the teeth of the lower jaw, were exposed to view, by the absence of the nether lip, which had perished as other portions of the face—yet reader, in that horrid visage she recognized her seducer. ”

“ The surface of the cheeks extends to the extremity of the nose, forms a double depression by the sinking of the cheek, which grows hollow toward the convex lip, and surrounds the mouth and the two lips. ”

“ But it is equally remarkable for mobility, and his most expressive results are produced by liftings of the high-arched brows and the play of passions about the flexible mouth. The natural line of his lip, not scornful in itself, is on that straight border-ground where a hair's breadth can raise it into sardonic curves, transforming all its good to sneering evil. ”