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yawn
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As a verb, yawn means open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation. As a noun, it means the action of yawning.
Meanings of yawn
9 meaningsverb
To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
“I could see my students yawning, so I knew the lesson was boring them.”
To say while yawning.
To present a wide opening; gape.
“The canyon yawns as it has done for millions of years, and we stand looking, dumbstruck.”
“Death yawned before us, and I hit the brakes.”
Utter a yawn, as from lack of oxygen or when one is tiredbody
“The child yawned during the long performance”
Older and rare meanings (2)
obsoleteTo open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
obsoleteTo be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.
“to yawn for fat livings”
noun
The action of yawning; opening the mouth widely and taking a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored.
colloquialA particularly boring event.
“The slideshow we sat through was such a yawn. I was glad when it finished.”
An involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
“he could not suppress a yawn”
“the yawning in the audience told him it was time to stop”
“he apologized for his oscitancy”
Similar: yawning, oscitance, oscitancy
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).