Word.ws English Dictionary

jawn

/d͡ʒɔːn/

jawn is the obsolete form of yawn.

Noun

jawn (plural jawns)

  1. (Mid-Atlantic, US, slang, African-American Vernacular) Something; a thing; any object, place, or person.
    • "Then I started thinking of the Scenario remix and was like yo, that jawn was just as good."2001, Steve Jackson, “Takin it back B/W BEEF”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet)
    • "Just back from a tour in Australia, he was sitting at a table in the dining car with a group of friends that included members of the hip-hop groups Spank Rock and Plastic Little. 'This,' he said, 'is the jawn.'"2007 September 23, Jessica Pressler, “The Bar Car is Rocking”, in New York Times
  2. (Mid-Atlantic, US, slang, African-American Vernacular) A woman.
    • MY boi in NY, when he first came to Philly, used to tell me the philly jawns were easy.1999 July 16, “da One and Only Jazzman”, “Re: RapCity: UnderHouston”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet)
    • I had a few chicks that I messed around with but this one main jawn stuck out in particular.2005, Krystle J. Nutter, Turned Out, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 1

Meaning of yawn

Verb

yawn (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.
    • I could see my students yawning, so I knew the lesson was boring them.
  2. To say while yawning.
    • “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
  3. To present a wide opening; gape.
    • The canyon yawns as it has done for millions of years, and we stand looking, dumbstruck.
  4. (obsolete) To open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
    • […] O heavy hour!
      Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
      Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
      Should 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...
  5. (obsolete) To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.
    • to yawn for fat livings

See all 8 meanings of yawn

Forms of jawn

Verb
third-person singular presentjawns
present participlejawning
past participlejawned
pastjawned
Noun
pluraljawns

Origin of jawn

First attested in the 1990s. Most likely an alteration of joint. Compare junt.

Words that rhyme with jawn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jawn

What does jawn mean?
Jawn means something; a thing; any object, place, or person.
What is jawn the obsolete form of?
Jawn is the obsolete form of yawn.
What part of speech is jawn?
Jawn is a noun.
How do you pronounce jawn?
Jawn is pronounced /d͡ʒɔːn/.
What is the plural of jawn?
The plural of jawn is jawns.

Words near jawn in the dictionary

  1. jawls
  2. jawmaxx
  3. jawmaxxed
  4. jawmaxxes
  5. jawmaxxing
  6. jawn
  7. jawned
  8. jawning
  9. jawns
  10. Jawor
  11. Jaworowski

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jawn (page history and authors); yawn (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-au-jawn.ogg.

Cite this entry: “jawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.