Definition of "yawn"

yawn

/jɔːn/

verb
third-person singular simple present yawns, present participle yawning, simple past and past participle yawned
1. (intransitive) To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
  Quotations
  […] I found my self towards Evening, first empty and sickish at my Stomach, and nearer Night mightily enclin’d to yawning and sleepy […]
  1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […]
  And while above he spends his breath, / The yawning audience nod beneath.
  c. 1773, John Trumbull, The Progress of Dulness, Exeter, New Hampshire: Henry Ranlet, 1794, Part 1, p. 19
2. To say while yawning.
  Quotations
  “I haven’t the least idea what I want to do,” he yawned.
  1922, Stephen McKenna, chapter 10, in The Secret Victory‎, New York: George H. Doran, page 214
  “Oh,” Sutherland yawned, “I’m too old for this.”
  1978, Andrew Holleran, chapter 8, in The Dancer from the Dance‎, New York: Bantam, published 1979, page 217
3. To present a wide opening; gape.
  Quotations
  ’Tis now the very witching time of night,When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes outContagion to this world.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
  […] Hell at lastYawning receavd them whole, and on them clos’d,
  1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 874-875
  If your child has tumbled into one of those open sewers which yawn for the unwary in the streets […]
  1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 104
4. (obsolete) To open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
  Quotations
  […] O heavy hour!Methinks it should be now a huge eclipseOf sun and moon, and that the affrighted globeShould yawn at alteration.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
  […] Hell being vnder euerie one of their Stages, the Players (if they had owed him a spight) might with a false Trappe doore haue slipt him downe, and there kept him, as a laughing stocke to al their yawning Spectators.
  1606, Thomas Dekker, Nevves from hell brought by the Diuells carrier‎, London: W. Ferebrand
5. (obsolete) To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.
  Quotations
  Fly not, as thou wert wont, to his embrace,Lest, after one long yawning gaze, he swearThou art the best good fellow in the world,But he had quite forgotten thee, by Jove!
  1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Milton and Andrew Marvel”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], page 6
noun
plural yawns
1. The action of yawning; opening the mouth widely and taking a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored.
  Quotations
  At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said, “How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! […] ”
  1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 11, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […]
  But Mrs. MacWhirr, in the drawing-room […] , stifled a yawn—perhaps out of self-respect—for she was alone.
  1902, Joseph Conrad, chapter 6, in Typhoon‎
2. (colloquial) A particularly boring event.

Definition of "yawn"

yawn

verb

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noun

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