yawn

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“
Mark Lieberman, the CEO of TRA, a media marketing company, notices what he calls the yawn effect.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. intransitive verb To open the mouth wide with a deep inhalation, usually involuntarily from drowsiness, fatigue, or boredom.
  2. intransitive verb To open wide; gape: The chasm yawned at our feet.
  3. transitive verb To utter wearily, while or as if while yawning: yawned his disapproval of the silly venture.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (28)

  • If Madelyne had been watching him, she would have known the yawn was a blatant lie. —  Garwood, Julie - Honor's Splendour
  • Gaida is one of those (* yawn*) dime-a-dozen singers who also makes a living as a speech pathologist, and has a similarly dull list of cities that she's called home: Damascus, Kuwait, Paris, Detroit, and now, New York. —  Aurgasm
  • Search for Mahalo returned some odd pages from the site over pages about the site. * yawn* —  Sample the Web
  • Sam Johnston: * yawn* Been there, said that ... but it's great to see oth ... —  Avastu Blog - Sustainable Global Clouds
  • Oh man, another conservative has his panties in a wad over the fee increase. * yawn* —  Daily Tar Heel RSS
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sigh ·  chuckle ·  grunt ·  snarl ·  shrug ·  snore ·  wail ·  shake ·  giggle ·  splash ·  sob ·  gulp

Used in the same contextWord Family

yawn:   yawns ·  yawning
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English yanen, alteration of yonen, yenen, from Old English geonian.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English yane, dial. gaun, goan; from Middle English ʒanon, ʒonen, ganen, gonen, from Anglo-Saxon gānian = Low German janen = Old High German geinōn, Middle High German geinen, yawn; a secondary form, parallel to Anglo-Saxon ginian = Old High German ginēn, Middle High German ginen, genen, German gähnen, yawn; both being derived from a strong verb, Anglo-Saxon gīnan (preterit *gān), in comp. tō-gīnen, gape apart, = Icelandic gīna, gape: see further under begin. The form yawn, from Anglo-Saxon gānian, instead of *yone (yōn), is irreg., but is parallel with broad (brôd), from Anglo-Saxon brād. The initial y for g is also irregular; it is prob. due to an Anglo-Saxon variant *geánian, or to conformation with yave for gave, etc.
  2. from yawn, v.
 

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/yɔn/
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