yawn
to open the mouth somewhat involuntarily with a prolonged, deep inhalation and sighing or heavy exhalation, as from drowsiness or boredom.
to open wide like a mouth.
to extend or stretch wide, as an open and deep space.
to say with a yawn.
Archaic. to open wide, or lay open, as if by yawning.
Origin of yawn
1Other words for yawn
Words that may be confused with yawn
- yawn , yon
Words Nearby yawn
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use yawn in a sentence
The team found that lions that saw another member of the pride yawn were about 139 times as likely to yawn themselves within the next three minutes.
Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements | Jake Buehler | April 6, 2021 | Science NewsSeeing the lions yawn reminded Palagi of her own work on contagious yawning in primates.
Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements | Jake Buehler | April 6, 2021 | Science NewsWatch a group of lions yawn, and it may seem like nothing more than big, lazy cats acting sleepy, but new research suggests that these yawns may be subtly communicating some important social cues.
Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements | Jake Buehler | April 6, 2021 | Science NewsSo, a yawn could be a good way for an individual in a social species to communicate to group mates that it is experiencing some kind of internal change.
Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements | Jake Buehler | April 6, 2021 | Science NewsThat yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.
The unfinished business Jeff Bezos leaves behind at Amazon | Lila MacLellan | February 3, 2021 | Quartz
The arcane pair of paragraphs are packed with the sort of yawn-provoking polysyllables that only a lawyer could love.
Civil libertarians are outraged, but elsewhere the news was met with a collective yawn.
Surveillance Program Got You Yawning? Here’s Why You Should Worry | Josh Dzieza | June 11, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTMy greatest fear is that we will find out they are spying on us, and the American public will yawn.
He would read her his poetry, and she would stretch and yawn like a cat.
But so far, the markets have pretty much offered a big yawn.
Cyprus is Imploding, So Why Aren't Markets Freaking Out? | Megan McArdle | March 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe was about to stretch himself and give vent to a noisy yawn when the word “Laidlaw” smote his ear.
The Garret and the Garden | R.M. BallantyneMen yawn and cough, chairs and beds are noisily moved about, heavy feet pace stone floors.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander BerkmanHe disliked the audible yawn with which Cash manifested his return from the deathlike unconsciousness of sleep.
Cabin Fever | B. M. BowerHe insisted upon sending for the doctor, who came, striving not to yawn, but to look pleased.
Love's Pilgrimage | Upton SinclairWe sometimes yawn, and ask, just by way of conversation, Whether Spain will joyn?
Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2) | Edward Gibbon
British Dictionary definitions for yawn
/ (jɔːn) /
(intr) to open the mouth wide and take in air deeply, often as in involuntary reaction to tiredness, sleepiness, or boredom
(tr) to express or utter while yawning
(intr) to be open wide as if threatening to engulf (someone or something): the mine shaft yawned below
the act or an instance of yawning
Origin of yawn
1Derived forms of yawn
- yawner, noun
- yawning, adjective
- yawningly, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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