jaw
part of speech
noun (a jaw, jaws); verb (jaw, jaws, jawed, jawing — informal, rare: to talk a lot)
meaning for a pupil
1) One of the two bones at the bottom of the face that hold the teeth; the lower jaw moves when you eat or speak. tree →
2) «Jaws» are the mouth parts of an animal, like a shark's or crocodile's jaws. tree →
3) The parts of a tool that grip things, like the jaws of a vice or pliers. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on the skeleton and teeth: the jaw (mandible) is the only bone in the skull that moves; animals with strong jaws chew or bite hard. In stories: «his jaw dropped» shows great surprise; «in the jaws of danger» means very close to danger. Phrases: «jaw-dropping», «clench your jaw».
examples
- The crocodile snapped its huge jaws shut. tree →
- My jaw hurts after the dentist. tree →
- Our lower jaw moves when we chew. tree →
- His jaw dropped when he saw the giant cake. tree →
- Sharks have rows of sharp teeth in their jaws. tree →
- The jaws of the clamp hold the wood still. tree →
- The magician did a jaw-dropping trick. tree →
- Then the dragon opened her jaws wider and wider and wider. tree →
note
Countable: a jaw, jaws. «Jaw-dropping» means amazing. The jaw is a bone, not a muscle, but strong muscles move it. «Jaws» is also the name of a famous scary shark film.
In the corpora
- The alligator snapping turtle lures fish with a pink worm-shaped flap on its tongue and then snaps its jaws shut.
- Snakes have no outer ears and hear little of sounds in the air, but they feel vibrations through the ground and their jaws.
- Komodo dragons have venom glands in their jaws; the venom stops blood clotting and weakens prey.
- People once thought germs in the Komodo dragon's mouth killed its prey, but scientists found it has venom glands in its jaw.
- Trap-jaw ants snap their jaws so fast they can fling themselves into the air.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «jaw» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.