- present participle of yawn.
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
Etymology
Origin of yawning
before 900; Middle English; Old English geniendum. See yawn, -ing 2
Explanation
Yawning is what happens when you reflexively open your mouth wide, inhale, and exhale again. Most yawning is caused by sleepiness or extreme boredom. Use the word yawning for actual yawning — or to mean "wide open." A yawning chasm in the ground is a huge, wide gap, and a yawning hole in a movie's plot is the obvious space where some details are missing, making the resulting story seem unlikely and unbelievable. A yawning child, on the other hand, is probably just ready for her nap.
Vocabulary lists containing yawning
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.
Yawning gaps have appeared in their budgets and it's not clear how some will balance the books.
From BBC • Dec. 9, 2024
Yawning can also mean, of course, that your dog is tired.
From New York Times • May 12, 2022
Yawning, which typically conveys boredom or fatigue, is a strange, unflattering thing to include in a memorial.
From Washington Post • Oct. 13, 2020
Yawning is contagious, University of Nottingham researchers have confirmed.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2017
Yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked at me and said, “You’re up kind of early, aren’t you?”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
