[f. YAWN v.]
1. Something that yawns; a gaping opening or entrance; esp. a chasm, abyss.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. iii. Wks. 1856, I. 111. Now gapes the graves, and through their yawnes let loose Imprison’d spirits to revisit earth.
1755. T. Amory, Mem. (1766), II. 56. The billows that were all in wild uproar, and then came down into the dreadful yawn.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 22 (1822), I. 170. Trust not the tempting yawn of stable-yard or gateway.
a. 1821. Keats, Hyperion, I. 120. Spaces of fire, and all the yawn of hell.
1894. W. Clark Russell, in Idler, Sept., 134. The stubborn, wonderful old piece of timber-frame was picked out of the yawn of the hatch in splinters.
2. The or an act of yawning: a. Gaping or opening wide.
1697. Congreve, Mourn. Bride, II. v. Sure, ’tis the Friendly Yawn of Death for me.
1705. Addison, Italy, 248. And sometimes with a mighty Yawn, ’tis said, Opens a dismal Passage to the Dead.
b. Involuntary opening of the mouth, as from drowsiness.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 96. After … a few hearty Yawns, he crawls up upon Deck.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 320, ¶ 5. Our Salutation at Entrance is a Yawn and a Stretch.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 343. She … heard thy everlasting yawn confess The Pains and Penalties of Idleness.
1875. Tennyson, Q. Mary, I. iii. A life of nods and yawns.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Yawnful a., Yawnish a., Yawnless a., Yawnsome a., Yawnsomely adv.
1855. Anne Manning, Old Chelsea Bun-Ho., ix. 156. I awoke … chilly and yawnish.
1878. J. Thomson, Plenip. Key, 26. His mouth and arins stretched yawnful.
1881. J. M. Brown, Student Life, 4. A yawnless languor.
1898. [Gwendoline Keats], in Blackw. Mag., April, 498/1. Fifty dull, stiff-jointed, yawnful years.
1900. Yorksh. Post, 28 July, 6/6. A jaded and yawnsome and even jaundiced assemblage.
1908. Standard, 18 Feb., 7. A … yawnsomely dull debate.
