noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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jawbonesimple
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jawbonessimple
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have jawbonedperfect
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has jawbonedperfect
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am jawboningprogressive
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are jawboningprogressive
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is jawboningprogressive
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have been jawboningperfect progressive
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has been jawboningperfect progressive
Past
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jawbonedsimple
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had jawbonedperfect
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was jawboningprogressive
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were jawboningprogressive
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had been jawboningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of jawbone
Explanation
To jawbone is to talk informally. Think "schmooze," "talk up," or "chit chat;" it's a word to use when the act of talking is more important than what's being talked about. In a financial or political context, jawboning is a form of persuasion. When Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to jawbone rising interest-rates in 1966, he was attempting to change the behavior of the markets without taking direct action. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats can be seen as jawboning as well, as FDR enlisted support first for New Deal programs and then for the US role in World War II through informal, friendly radio-broadcast "chats."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I had never heard of the book inside, but a Google search told me that Cain’s Jawbone is both a murder mystery and a brain-teasing puzzle.
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
Over the next month, Jawbone canyon will continue to bloom, featuring “lavender Lacy Phacelia and brilliant yellow desert dandelions,” per the parks department.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2023
It was against that backdrop that a lightning strike sparked the Beachie Creek fire in mid-August 2020 near an old mining outpost known as Jawbone Flats.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 14, 2022
The Jawbone Up3, which we reviewed in 2015, was supposed to track light, deep, and REM sleep.
From The Verge • Nov. 1, 2021
Jawbone continued to blast us with that deep groaning bellow.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
