gape vs yawn what difference

what is difference between gape and yawn

English

Etymology

Middle English gapen, from Old Norse gapa (“to gape”) (compare Swedish gapa, Danish gabe), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (descendants Middle English geapen, Dutch gapen, German gaffen), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰеh₁b-. Cognates include Russian зяпа (zjapa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡeɪp/
• Rhymes: -eɪp

Verb

gape (third-person singular simple present gapes, present participle gaping, simple past and past participle gaped)

1. (intransitive) To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
   • 1723, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 1810, Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 11, page 467,

     She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, / And asks if it be time to rise;
2. (intransitive) To stare in wonder.
3. (intransitive) To open wide; to display a gap.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Third Part of King Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 1, 1807, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (editors),The plays of William Shakspeare, Volume X, page 291,

     May that ground gape, and swallow me alive, / Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father!

   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:

     “Nor is he deterr’d from the belief of the perpetual flying of the Manucodiata, by the gaping of the feathers of her wings, (which seem thereby less fit to sustain her body) but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed in Kites hovering in the Aire, as he saith, for a whole hour together without any flapping of their wings or changing place.”

   • a. 1699, John Denham, Cato Major, Of Old Age: A Poem, 1710, page 25,

     The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes:

4. (intransitive, of a cat) To open the passage to the vomeronasal organ, analogous to the flehming in other animals.
5. (pornography) To depict a dilated anal or vaginal cavity upon penetrative sexual activity.

Translations

Noun

gape (countable and uncountable, plural gapes)

1. (uncommon) An act of gaping; a yawn.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

2. A large opening.
3. (uncountable) A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
4. The width of an opening.
5. (zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.

Derived terms

• agape

Translations

Anagrams

• PAGE, Page, page, peag

Dutch

Verb

gape

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of gapen

Anagrams

• page

Northern Sotho

Adverb

gape

1. again

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (imperative gap, present tense gaper, passive gapes, simple past gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, present participle gapende)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

   gap opp! – open wide! (e.g. at the dentist)

References

• “gape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• gapa

Etymology

From Old Norse gapa

Verb

gape (present tense gapar or gaper, past tense gapa or gapte, past participle gapa or gapt, passive infinitive gapast, present participle gapande, imperative gap)

1. to gape (of a mouth, hole, wound etc., be wide open)

References

• “gape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Etymology

Partly from Middle English yanen, yonen, yenen (“to yawn”), from Old English ġinian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-Germanic *ginōną (“to yawn”); and partly from Middle English gonen (“to gape, yawn”), from Old English gānian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-Germanic *gainōną (“to yawn, gape”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-, *ǵʰeyh₁- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with North Frisian jåne (“to yawn”), Saterland Frisian jaanje, joanje (“to yawn”), Middle Dutch genen, ghenen (“to yawn”), German Low German jahnen (“to yawn”), German gähnen (“to yawn, gape”), dialectal Swedish gana (“to gape, gawk”), dialectal Norwegian gina (“to gape”).

Compare also Old Church Slavonic зѣѭ (zějǫ) (Russian зи́нуть (zínutʹ), зия́ть (zijátʹ)), Greek χαίνω (khaínō)), Latin hiō, Tocharian A śew, Tocharian B kāyā, Lithuanian žioti, Sanskrit जेह् (jeh)

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: yôn, IPA^(key): /jɔːn/
• Rhymes: -ɔːn
• (US) enPR: yôn, IPA^(key): /jɔn/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: yän, IPA^(key): /jɑn/
• Homophone: yon (with cot-caught merger)

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.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. ,^[1]

     […] I found my self towards Evening, first empty and sickish at my Stomach, and nearer Night mightily enclin’d to yawning and sleepy […]

   • c. 1773, John Trumbull, The Progress of Dulness, Exeter, New Hampshire: Henry Ranlet, 1794, Part 1, p. 19,^[2]

     And while above he spends his breath,

     The yawning audience nod beneath.

2. To say while yawning.
   • 1922, Stephen McKenna, The Secret Victory, New York: George H. Doran, Chapter Ten, p. 214,^[3]

     “I haven’t the least idea what I want to do,” he yawned.

   • 1978, Andrew Holleran, The Dancer from the Dance, New York: Bantam, 1979, Chapter 8, p. 217,^[4]

     “Oh,” Sutherland yawned, “I’m too old for this.”

3. To present a wide opening.

   The canyon yawns as it has done for millions of years, and we stand looking, dumbstruck.

   Death yawned before us, and I hit the brakes.

   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2,^[5]

     ’Tis now the very witching time of night,

     When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out

     Contagion to this world.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 6, lines 874-875,^[6]

     […] Hell at last

     Yawning receavd them whole, and on them clos’d,

4. (obsolete) To open the mouth, or to gape, through surprise or bewilderment.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act V, Scene 2,^[7]

     […] O heavy hour!

     Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse

     Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe

     Should yawn at alteration.

   • 1606, Thomas Dekker, Nevves from hell brought by the Diuells carrier, London: W. Ferebrand, ^[8]

     […] Hell being vnder euerie one of their Stages, the Players (if they had owed him a spight) might with a false Trappe doore haue slipt him downe, and there kept him, as a laughing stocke to al their yawning Spectators.

5. (obsolete) To be eager; to desire to swallow anything; to express desire by yawning.

   to yawn for fat livings

   • 1824, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, London: Taylor & Hessey, Volume I, “Milton and Andrew Marvel,” p. 6,^[9]

     Fly not, as thou wert wont, to his embrace,

     Lest, after one long yawning gaze, he swear

     Thou art the best good fellow in the world,

     But he had quite forgotten thee, by Jove!

Derived terms

• yawnable
• yawner
• yawningly

Translations

Noun

yawn (plural yawns)

1. The action of yawning; opening the mouth widely and taking a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored.
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11,^[10]

     At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said, “How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! […] ”

   • 1902, Joseph Conrad, Typhoon, Chapter 6,^[11]

     But Mrs. MacWhirr, in the drawing-room […] , stifled a yawn—perhaps out of self-respect—for she was alone.

2. (colloquial) A particularly boring event.

   The slideshow we sat through was such a yawn. I was glad when it finished.

Derived terms

• multicolour yawn
• Technicolor yawn
• yawnfest
• yawnless
• yawn-sigh
• yawnsome
• yawny

Translations

References

Anagrams

• YNWA, awny, wany, wayn

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