Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Yawn   /jɔn/   Listen
noun
Yawn  n.  
1.
An involuntary act, excited by drowsiness, etc., consisting of a deep and long inspiration following several successive attempts at inspiration, the mouth, fauces, etc., being wide open. "One person yawning in company will produce a spontaneous yawn in all present."
2.
The act of opening wide, or of gaping.
3.
A chasm, mouth, or passageway. (R.) "Now gape the graves, and trough their yawns let loose Imprisoned spirits."



verb
Yawn  v. i.  (past & past part. yawned; pres. part. yawning)  
1.
To open the mouth involuntarily through drowsiness, dullness, or fatigue; to gape; to oscitate. "The lazy, yawning drone." "And while above he spends his breath, The yawning audience nod beneath."
2.
To open wide; to gape, as if to allow the entrance or exit of anything. "'t is now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn."
3.
To open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
4.
To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning; as, to yawn for fat livings. "One long, yawning gaze."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Yawn" Quotes from Famous Books



... pale woman a phantom might seem, Who appear'd to herself but the dream of a dream! 'Neath those features so calm, that fair forehead so hush'd, That pale cheek forever by passion unflush'd, There yawn'd an insatiate void, and there heaved A tumult of restless regrets unrelieved. The brief noon of beauty was passing away, And the chill of the twilight fell, silent and gray, O'er that deep, self-perceived isolation ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith

... be polite or generous; but this of yours is a deep grief, and alarms me for you. Shall I tell you how I know? You often yawn and often sigh; when these two things come together at your age they are signs of a heavy grief; then it comes out that you have lost your relish for things that once pleased you. The first day I came here ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... injunctions," she said, "your double will prove more tractable. He will go forth and do all I would have you do, while I have but to stamp upon the floor and a dungeon will yawn beneath your feet, where you will lie immured till doomsday. The same fate will attend your crafty associate, Master Potts—so that neither of you ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... urine-conduits, dilates the spermatic vessels, shortens the cremasters, purgeth the bladder, puffeth up the genitories, correcteth the prepuce, hardens the nut, and rectifies the member. It will make you have a current belly to trot, fart, dung, piss, sneeze, cough, spit, belch, spew, yawn, snuff, blow, breathe, snort, sweat, and set taut your Robin, with a thousand other rare advantages. I understand you very well, says Pantagruel; you would thereby infer that those of a mean spirit and shallow capacity have not the skill to spend much in a short time. You are not the first in ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... and a second time there was the rushing of naked feet on earth and ringing iron; the clatter of tools ceased. In the silence, men heard the dry yawn of ...
— Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II • Rudyard Kipling


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com