Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of yawning or gaping from sleepiness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of yawning or gaping.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of yawning or gaping.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin oscitatio: compare French oscitation.

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Examples

  • From those experiments there is reason to conclude that the fatigued part of the retina throws itself into a contrary mode of action like oscitation or pandiculation, as soon as the stimulus, which has fatigued it, is withdrawn; but that it still remains liable to be excited into action by any other colours except the colour with which it has been fatigued.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • The alternate exertions of the retina in the preceding section resembled the oscitation or pandiculation of the muscles, as they were performed in directions contrary to each other, and were the consequence of fatigue rather than of pain.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • From these experiments there is reason to conclude, that the fatigued part of the retina throws itself into a contrary mode of action, like oscitation or pandiculation, as soon as the stimulus which has fatigued it is withdrawn; and that it still remains sensible, that is, liable to be excited into action by any other colours at the same time, except the colour with which it has been fatigued.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

Comments

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  • oscitation – 1) the act of being inattentive; 2) the state of being drowsy

    July 26, 2008

  • "She opened with a recitation--interspersed with oscitations and eructations--of a monologue by the teenage actress in The Seagull."

    The No Variations by Luis Chitarroni, translated by Darren Koolman, p 115

    September 16, 2013