jawbone
jawbone noun: the bone of the lower jaw; the mandible.
Noun
jawbone (countable and uncountable, plural jawbones)
- The bone of the lower jaw; the mandible.
- 14 ¶ And when he came vnto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily vpon him, and the cordes that were vpon his armes became as flaxe that was burnt with fire, & his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And he found a new iawbone of an asse, and put foorth...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 15:14–17
- Synonyms:
- inferior maxillary bone, lower jaw, mandible, submaxilla
- 14 ¶ And when he came vnto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily vpon him, and the cordes that were vpon his armes became as flaxe that was burnt with fire, & his bands loosed from off his hands.
- Any of the bones in the lower or upper jaw.
- Synonyms:
- dentary, dentary bone, maxilla
- A shaken musical instrument (an idiophone) made from the jawbone of an animal and shaken such that the teeth vibrate in their sockets to produce sound.
- Credit.
- We have a few persons whose pockets are to let—men who have more complaints than dollars—individuals who, in digger's parlance, live on jawbone (credit), and are always to be found at saloons; a class of men who, when they are here, wish themselves yonder, and when yonder, wish themselves back.1862 October 21, Times Correspondent
Verb
jawbone (third-person singular simple present jawbones, present participle jawboning, simple past and past participle jawboned)
- To talk persistently in an attempt to persuade somebody to cooperate.
- “We got a winner. He stole her glasses and she couldn't see. Boring.” (crowd jeering) “Give me my glasses back.” “I'm gonna give your glasses to your master.” “Lot of jawboning going on.” “Okay? Here you go. It was nice meeting you, okay?” “...a little less hot air, but I present to you our new...2022 July 26, William Meny & Paul Simms, “The Night Market” (16:56 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 4, episode 4, spoken by Ringmaster (Nick Corirossi)
- (especially of regulatory agencies) To try to persuade (someone) through implied threats of punitive action, such as tighter regulatory control.
jawbone meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati and Tagalog
jawbone in Tamil
- bone of the lower jaw
- தாடை tāṭai
jawbone in Urdu
- جبڑے کی ہڈی
jawbone in Gujarati
- jawbone
- જડબું jaḍbũ
jawbone in Tagalog
- bone of the lower jaw
- sihang
More languagesFewer languages
- jawbone in Malay
- tulang rahang, rahang bawah, mandibel, tulang pengancing
Synonyms of jawbone
- inferior maxillary bone
- lower jaw
- mandible
- submaxilla
- dentary
- dentary bone
- maxilla
Forms of jawbone
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jawbones |
| alternative form | jaw bone |
| alternative form | jaw-bone |
| alternative form (obsolete) | chawe bone |
| alternative form (obsolete) | chaw-bone |
| alternative form (obsolete) | chawbone |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | jawbones |
| present participle | jawboning |
| past participle | jawboned |
| past | jawboned |
Origin of jawbone
From Middle English jawe bone, a partial calque of earlier Middle English chawlbone, chawylbon, chavylbone, chawle boon, chavyl bon (“jaw bone”, literally “chavel bone”), see chavel-bone; equivalent to jaw + bone.
Words formed from jawbone
Questions about jawbone
- What does jawbone mean?
- Jawbone means the bone of the lower jaw; the mandible.
- What is jawbone in Tamil?
- Jawbone in Tamil is தாடை (tāṭai). See Jawbone meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is jawbone?
- Jawbone can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of jawbone?
- The plural of jawbone is jawbones.
Words near jawbone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jawbone (page history and authors); jawbone (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); જડબું (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-jawbone.oga.
Cite this entry: “jawbone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jawbone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.