Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Gaping open; cavernous: a yawning abyss.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. 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. The act is refiex and involuntary in character, though it can often be partially repressed by a strong effort of the will. It is the physiological expression of fatigue and of a desire to sleep, but is also excited by insufficient oxygenation of the blood, and occurs therefore in conditions of lowered vitality, in the prodromal stage of many diseases, and after profuse losses of blood. The sight of another person yawning is also provocative of the act.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of yawn.
- n. The action of the verb yawn.
- adj. That yawns or yawn.
- adj. figuratively Wide open.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. showing lack of attention or boredom
- adj. gaping open as if threatening to engulf someone or something
- adj. with the mouth wide open indicating boredom or sleepiness
- n. an involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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).”
“The good thing about yawning is that it’s not boring.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘yawning’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Bedaphors
So
very
sleepyhypnagogic, chronotherapy, clinomania, condorm, librocubicularist, matutolypea, soporific, supine, decubitus, pandiculation, oscitancy, slugabed and 169 more...
-
miscellany
preposterous, minimalism, outnumbered, subroutine, malinger, oddity, eccentricity, laughable, oxymoronic, interstellar, winter, heedless and 335 more...
-
words
words
spartan, cram, quill, furor, rampart, enervate, placate, agitate, galvanize, spur, pricker, infuriate and 273 more...
-
subdermal irritants
ointment, flummox, kinnikinnick, lozenge, blabbermouth, blurb, blurb, lollies, fizzy drink, fizzy drink, yawning, suck it and 41 more...
-
This Ys a List
A collection of particularly evocative or unusual words from Joanna Newsom's Album 'Ys'. Just to test Wordie.
mica, pleiades, yawning, peonies, hydrocephalitic, dolorous, asterisms, spelunking, sloughed, diluvian, balletic, gibbering and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for yawning.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.