Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I’ve long been stumped by reading in novels that someone purses their lips.   What exactly does that look like?

On today’s show, Martha mentions some connection with the money purse.  Still, what does it look like on humans?   Obama and Clinton corner the market of that stretching way way down the corners, a kind of stoic forbearance sort of expression.  But pursing lips seems to suggest something quick, in mid-conversation, and perhaps something with cluck cluck sounds.  And if you google the images, you get all kinds.

What is your understanding of what it is?

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I have a vague image of it being like what the sleeping Lincoln is doing as my avatar above.