a. Also yawney. [f. YAWN sb. or v. + -Y1.] Characterized by yawns or (much) yawning; inclined to, or provocative of, yawning.
1805. [implied in yawniness].
1813. Examiner, 31 Jan., 74/2. His laugh relaxed into a yawny simper. Ibid. (1830), 410/2. His Discourses are … what our departed friend Nollekens would have described as ‘yawney’—that is, somewhat heavy.
1888. Meredith, Lett. to Miss Meredith, 5 Jan. Bruny and Koby in Lapinland last night, very yawny to-day.
Hence Yawniness.
1805. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor (1843), II. 115. The old yawniness comes on at times.
1898. M. P. Shiel, Yellow Danger, 176. The day has that very early-morning grayness for which one can find no adjective to express its utter yawniness.
