1. Falling of the jaw; fig. dejection. rare.
1660. M. Griffith, Fear of God & King, 29. For a time they had an Inter-regnum, and no King in Israel, besides divers other horrid jawfalls in government.
† 2. Dislocation or subluxation of the lower jaw so that it cannot be shut. Obs.
1788. Rush, in T. J. Pettigrew, Mem. J. C. Lettsom (1817), II. 432. The locked-jaw, or as it is usually called among the planters, the jaw-fall, is a very common disease among the children of the slaves.
