Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Gaping open; cavernous.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Gaping; oscitation; the taking of a deep inspiration, followed by a slight pause, and then a prolonged expiration, the mouth being more or less widely open.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
yawn . - noun The action of the verb
yawn . - adjective That yawns or yawn.
- adjective figuratively Wide open.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective showing lack of attention or boredom
- adjective gaping open as if threatening to engulf someone or something
- adjective with the mouth wide open indicating boredom or sleepiness
- noun an involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
Etymologies
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Examples
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I'm disgusted at how marginalized people are, she added, referring to what she described as the yawning gap between the very rich and everyone else.
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Finally, yawning is "contagious" and has a high rate of suggestibility — so choose your company carefully.
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Vanya enters, yawning from a nap, the three complain about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived.
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Contagious yawning is not a strictly human habit, though.
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The biological function of yawning is debatable and there are several kinds of yawns that may signal everything from fatigue to aggression.
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Vanya enters, yawning from a nap, the three complain about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived.
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They believe this supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy.
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Actually I don't think yawning is a reaction to any nerve being hit.
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Since yawning is nature’s way of getting you to take a deep breath, you should look into reasons for shallow breathing.
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Not only does research show that yawning is contagious, it suggests yawning weeds out the starers who are a bit less empathetic (too bad the yawning trick won’t weed out the chimps, too).
Comments
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