yawning
Americanadjective
-
being or standing wide open; gaping.
the yawning mouth of a cave.
-
indicating by yawns one's weariness or indifference.
The lecturer was oblivious to his yawning audience.
Other Word Forms
- yawningly adverb
Etymology
Origin of yawning
before 900; Middle English; Old English geniendum. See yawn, -ing 2
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.
In the sea of vendor pop-ups, Mac Miller’s yawning face, the cover of his 2015 release “GO:OD AM,” stood tall.
From Los Angeles Times
Any worthwhile correspondence is fueled by the desire, even the need, to reach across a yawning separation.
From New York Times
From the outside it’s a white-pink granite cliff with yawning windows shaped a little like the openings to caves, nestling the museum’s wonderful Romanesque Revival addition from the turn of the last century.
From New York Times
A bustling market has been set up right on the edge of a yawning hole where another multi-storey building fell to the ground and was cleared away.
From BBC
There is also a yawning gender gap, with only about one-fifth of Indian women working in formal jobs.
From New York Times
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.
