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
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word yawning.
Examples
-
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.
-
Finally, yawning is "contagious" and has a high rate of suggestibility — so choose your company carefully.
-
Vanya enters, yawning from a nap, the three complain about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived.
Archive 2009-03-01 Jonathan Aquino 2009
-
Contagious yawning is not a strictly human habit, though.
-
The biological function of yawning is debatable and there are several kinds of yawns that may signal everything from fatigue to aggression.
-
Vanya enters, yawning from a nap, the three complain about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived.
Capsule Summaries of the Great Books of the Western World Jonathan Aquino 2009
-
They believe this supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy.
-
Actually I don't think yawning is a reaction to any nerve being hit.
Depression 2008
-
Since yawning is nature’s way of getting you to take a deep breath, you should look into reasons for shallow breathing.
-
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
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.