yawning

/ˈjɔːnɪŋ/

yawning is the present participle and gerund of yawn.

Adjective

yawning (comparative more yawning, superlative most yawning)

That yawns or yawn.
- yawning commuters
(figuratively) Wide open.
- a yawning chasm; the shark's yawning jaws
- That experience really taught me something. That deep down inside, I am broken, and that I'm using work to plaster over some yawning gap within myself.2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “Escape from the job monster”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 122

yawn (third-person singular simple present yawns, present participle yawning, simple past and past participle yawned)

(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.
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
To present a wide opening; gape.
- The canyon yawns as it has done for millions of years, and we stand looking, dumbstruck.
(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...
(obsolete) To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.
- to yawn for fat livings

yawning (countable and uncountable, plural yawnings)

The action of the verb yawn.
- Her vivacity appeared as graceful as it was buoyant; her gay spirit seemed the musical overflowings of youth and happiness; her eye and cheek brightened together; and her sweet glad laugh was as catching as yawning.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 189

What does yawning mean?: Yawning means the action of the verb yawn.
What is yawning the present participle and gerund of?: Yawning is the present participle and gerund of yawn.
What part of speech is yawning?: Yawning can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce yawning?: Yawning is pronounced /ˈjɔːnɪŋ/.
What is the plural of yawning?: The plural of yawning is yawnings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: yawning (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-yawning.wav.

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