Word.ws English Dictionary

jawsmith

jawsmith noun: an orator, especially a demagogue.

Noun

jawsmith (plural jawsmiths)

  1. (US, slang) An orator, especially a demagogue.
    • [Phil LaGassly] had a knack for winning over tough audiences, throwing in little asides and an unscripted joke or two as he went along. […] Andy [LaGassly's speechwriter] would sprinkle in a fair amount of substance here and there, wherever he could, always making sure he came up with a few catchy...2002, John Quirt, Jackboots in the Heartland, pages 58–59
  2. (US, slang) A union organizer; later especially of the International Workers of the World.
    • One professional jaw-smith, who came as the self-appointed messenger of American labor wanted a Chinese-wall tariff, and subsidized ships to carry cargoes one way and ballast the other.1891 January 16, Congressional Record, volume 22, 51st Congress, 2nd session, House, page 1476
    • The evolutions and involutions of a maiden effort at Dress Parade are incomprehensible as ravings of the salaried jawsmith in a labor strike, who has burst into a profuse state of prevarication as the rosy beer-froth mantles his sublime cheek.1898, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, volume 29, page 253

Examples of jawsmith in a sentence

  • It had been quite an act–the jawsmith and the wordsmith […]2002, John Quirt, Jackboots in the Heartland, pages 58–59:
  • Many Wobblies became "jawsmiths," or organizers, themselves.1986, Pete Seeger, Carry it on!: a history in song and picture of the working men and women of America, page 104:
  • The life of a "jawsmith", as IWW speakers and agitators were called […] Fatigue, burnout and overexhaustion are the diseases of the jawsmith trade.1987, Rosalyn Baxandall, editor, Words on Fire: The Life and Writing of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, pages 11, 19:

Forms of jawsmith

pluraljawsmiths

Origin of jawsmith

From jaw + smith.

Questions about jawsmith

What does jawsmith mean?
Jawsmith means an orator, especially a demagogue.
How do you use jawsmith in a sentence?
It had been quite an act–the jawsmith and the wordsmith […]
What part of speech is jawsmith?
Jawsmith is a noun.
What is the plural of jawsmith?
The plural of jawsmith is jawsmiths.

Words near jawsmith in the dictionary

  1. jaws' harps
  2. Jaws'-harp
  3. Jaws'-harps
  4. jaws-harp
  5. jaws-harps
  6. jawsmith
  7. jawsmiths
  8. jawteeth
  9. jawtooth
  10. jawy
  11. Jawzjan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jawsmith (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-jawsmith.ogg.

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