Forms: α. 4–5 iow, 4–6 iowe; β. 5–7 iawe, 7– jaw; (5 geaw, gowe, gew, 7 gagh). [A word of difficult etymology, on the origin of which the evidence known to us affords conflicting indications. It occurs in the form jow(e from c. 1375; c. 1483 we find jaw(e, which before long superseded jowe; from 1530 to c. 1675 there was a collateral CHAW(E. Chaucer rhymed jowe with clowe (= jaw, claw), which shows that the sound was not ū, and thus that the word was not the F. joue cheek.
If, notwithstanding the want of evidence, and in spite of the late exemplification of ch forms in chaw(e, it may be assumed that jowe was preceded by a ME. *chowe, representing an unrecorded OE. *céowe, ceówe wk. fem., this would be identical with OHG. kiuwa, chiuwa, early MHG. chiwe, chouwe, MHG. kiuwe, couwe, early mod. and dial. Ger. keu, käu, koie (Grimm); MDu. couwe, Kilian kouwe, keeuwe, Du. kieuw; going back to OTeut. *kewwōn, deriv. of kewwan to CHEW. The later chawe, jawe would then be parallel to mod.Ger. kaue, MDu. cauwe, Kilian kauwe, and to Ger. kauen, Du. kauwen, 16th c. Eng. CHAW v., beside OHG. kiuwan, MHG. kiuwen, MDu. kouwen, and OE. céowan CHEW, the phonetic relations of which are not clearly settled. The spelling with j may have been influenced by association with F. joue cheek; though the frequent passage of ch into j in other words shows that this need not be assumed. Cf. the phonetic development of OE. céafl, ME. chavel, chaul, chol, chowl, JOWL: also Marston’s JAWN for chawn sb. and vb.]
1. One of the bones (or sets of bones) forming the framework of the mouth, and the seizing, biting or masticating apparatus of vertebrates; in sing. more frequently the lower or under († nether) jaw, the inferior maxillary or mandible, than the upper († over) jaw, or superior maxillary; cf. JAW-BONE.
The dropping or falling of the jaw is a mark of death, dejection or chagrin: see JAW-FALLEN, CHOP-FALLEN.
α. 1382. Wyclif, Judg. xv. 16. In the cheek boon of an asse, that is, in the iow of the colt of assis, I haue doon hem awey.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xvi. (1495), 121. The Cocadryll meuyth the ouer Iowe [Bodley MS. þe ouer gowe] ayenste kynde of all other beestes and holdyth the nether Iowe [Bodley MS. þe neþir iowe] still and meuyth it not.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, 2. He had a grete hede large vysage longe Iowes.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C vij a. For booches that growe in a hawkis Iowe.
β. c. 1450. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., V. xlii. (Bodl. MS.). No beeste haþ an euen gut but he haue teeþ in ayþer iawe.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIII. (1555), c. ii. b. Dyd not kynge Davyd a lyons iawe tere.
1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 270. The bullet hitting him vnder his right iawe.
1611. Bible, Job xli. 2. Canst thou put an hooke into his [Leuiathan’s] nose? or bore his iawe through with a thorne?
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. 218. Their teeth are short, numerous, and, in the smaller kinds, perfectly inoffensive: they lie in either jaw.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell, I. x. There was a silent chasm Betwixt his upper jaw and under.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxx. (1878), 528. The jaw fell, and the eyes were fixed.
2. In pl. The bones and associated structures of the mouth including the teeth, regarded as instruments of prehension, crushing and devouring; hence, the cavity formed by these parts; the mouth, fauces, throat.
α. c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. iv. 9. (Camb. MS.). Yit drowh I hym owt of the Iowwes of hem þat gapeden.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxiii. (Tollem. MS.). It abateþ swellynge of iowes [tumorem faucium sedat] and helpeþ woundes of þe longes.
c. 1430. Stans Puer, 31, in Babees Bk., 29. To enbrace [v.r. enboce] þi iowis with breed, it is not dewe; with ful mouþ speke not lest þou do offence.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 195/1. There apperyd on hir no sygne of lyf sauf that hyr Iowes were a lytel reed.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xiii. 69. With ane hydduus wolfis gapand iowis.
β. c. 1483. Chaucer’s H. Fame, III. 696 (ed. Caxton). Euyl thryft come on your Iawes [rhyme clawes, Fairf. and Bodl. MSS. Iowes, -ys, clowes, -ys].
1575. Gascoigne, Hearbes, Voy. to Holland, 165. At last the Dutche with butterbitten iawes … Gan aunswere thus.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. viii. 33. The hungry Spaniells … With greedy iawes her ready for to teare.
1608. D. T[uvill], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 69. Many haue had the victory snatcht (as it were) out of their jawes,… for not making a golden bridge for the retyring forces of their enemy to passe ouer.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VII. 103. [No] form … discern’d but sparkling eyes and flaming jaws.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 147. From his wide Jaws His Tongue unmoisten’d hangs.
3. transf. chiefly in pl. The two sides of a narrow pass, fissure, gorge or channel; the narrow ‘mouth’ or entrance into a valley, gulf or sea; the fauces or entrance into the ‘throat’ of a flower, etc.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 167. Cesariensis, þat haþ … in þe west þe ryuer Malua, and in þe norþ þe gewes of þe grete see.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 271. Being commanded by Cæsar to guard the jawes of the Adriatick gulph.
1655. F. W. Obs., in W. Fulke’s Meteors, 165. The Ground perhaps open with those inundations, and the Gold fall into the gaping jaws of the Earth, and so stick there.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 395. Faux, the Jaws gaping between the Divisions of the Corollæ, where the Tube terminates.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., V. iii. The guide, abating of his pace, Led slowly through the pass’s jaws.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunters, II. xiv. 227. The ridge that formed the southern jaw of the chasm.
1883. Symonds, Ital. Byways, i. 4. The torrent, foaming down between black jaws of rain-stained granite.
4. pl. Applied to the seizing or holding members of a machine or apparatus, arranged in pairs, and usually capable of an opening and closing movement; spec. Naut. the semicircular, concave, or forked end of a boom or gaff which clasps the mast with its projecting ends or ‘horns.’
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, VII. 209. Bringing the jaws of the cap to embrace the stern-post.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 370. The end of the paper is at that time lying even with the extremity of the teeth i i, and the jaws of the tongs closing immediately that the rod j is put in motion.
1830. E. S. N. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., 39. Cock, that part of a musquet lock which sustains the two pieces of iron, called jaws, between which the flint is fixed.
1835. Marryat, Pirate, viii. The jaws of the main-gaff were severed.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 421. Krom’s laboratory crusher … In this machine (unlike any other) both jaws oscillate on centers, fixed some distance from the crushing faces.
1881. Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, 238. The joiner’s vice … is furnished with 9 in. jaws to open 12 in.
5. fig. (in pl.) The seizing action or capacity of any devouring agency, as death, time, etc.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Induction xxxii. And first within the portche and iawes of Hell.
c. 1580. Sidney, Ps. XXX. iii. The graves moist hungry jawes.
1595. Shaks., John, V. ii. 116. To winne renowne Euen in the iawes of danger, and of death.
1654. Fuller, Two Serm., 41. Mustering of men in this case, was but casting away so many into the Gaghs of Death.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 16. Which great strength has preserv’d it thus long from the jaws of time.
1855. Tennyson, Charge Lt. Brigade, iii. Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred.
6. Vulgar loquacity; esp. ‘cheeky’ or impudent talk; also, in vulgar language, A talk, a speech, a lecture, an address. Frequent in the phrases to hold or stop one’s jaw (where the sense may at first have been literal, as in to open, loose, or work one’s jaws: cf. also to hold one’s tongue).
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., iii. None of your jaw, you swab,… else I shall trim your laced jacket for you.
1753. Foote, Eng. in Paris, I. Wks. 1799, I. 37. Hold your jaw and dispatch. Ibid. (1772), Nabob, III. Wks. 1799, II. 318. Let’s have no more of your jaw!
1800. Ld. Metcalfe, in Fortn. Rev. (1885), June, 757. Tremendous jaw from my tutor.
1836. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 94. A rich jaw between … Read and Buckle, who met afloat after a previous quarrel.
a. 1845. Hood, Tale Trumpet, xx. Parliamentary jabber and jaw.
1868. Freeman, in W. R. W. Stephens, Life & Lett. (1895), I. 354. When they talk of right and law, we bid them hold their jaw.
1888. D. C. Murray, in Illustr. Lond. News, Christmas No. 11/2. So long as a man has the sense to hold his jaw at the right time.
7. attrib. and Comb., as jaw-arch, -break, -calipers, -chasm, -forceps, -gape, -man, -sheath, -work; jaw-cracking, jaw-locked, jaw-tied adjs.; jaw-bit (U.S.), a short bar placed beneath a journal box to unite the two pedestals in a car-truck (Cent. Dict., 1890); jaw-chuck, a chuck in a lathe furnished with jaws for seizing an object; jaw-crusher (Mining), an ore-crushing machine similar to the jaw-breaker; jaw-foot = foot-jaw (see FOOT sb. 35); jaw-footed a., provided with a jaw-foot; jaw-lever, a veterinary instrument for opening the mouth and administering medicine to cattle (Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 1858); † jaw-piece (Arch.), ? a corbel; jaw-rope (Naut.), the rope that fastens the two horns or prongs of the boom or gaff round the mast; jay-spring (U.S.), a journal spring; jaw-tackle (slang), the muscles of the jaws; the mouth, etc., as employed in talking; jaw-wedge (U.S.), a wedge to tighten the axle-box in an axle-guard (Webster, 1864).
1879. trans. Haeckel’s Evol. Man, II. xviii. 111. The foremost of these pairs of gill-arches changes into the *jaw-arch (maxillary arch), which gives rise to the upper and lower jaws.
1895. A. Morrison, Child of the Jago, 311. His chin fell on his chest as by *jaw-break.
1900. Animal World, XXXI. 18/2. They [larvæ of Libellula] then advance … until within half an inch of their prey, when out shoot the *jaw-calipers, and the object is seized.
1880. G. Meredith, Egoist, II. 105. The gaping *jaw-chasm of his greed.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v. Chuck, [figure] k is an independent *jaw chuck.
1883. Illustr. Lond. News, 8 Dec., 551/1 (Farmer). Such *jaw-cracking jokes.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 421. A similar manner to that in which the *jaw-crusher operates so effectually on large pieces of ore.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 422. The term *jaw-feet has now, by common consent, become the appellation by which they are distinguished.
1883. A. Wilson, in Longm. Mag., II. 48. The curious jaws, jaw-feet, and legs of the armoured crustacean.
1900. Animal World, XXXI. 18/2. The snatch of their *jaw-forceps is so quick it takes good eyesight to see it.
1898. G. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 11. Lyrical on into death’s red roaring *jaw-gape.
1807. E. S. Barrett, Rising Sun, III. 130. Their tongues … were, for some minutes, *jaw-locked, after beholding this dismal portent.
1894. Doyle, Round the Red Lamp, 203. He was himself a *jawman, ‘a mere jawman,’ as he modestly puts it, but in point of fact he [a surgeon] is too young … to confine himself to a specialty.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 73 b. The *iawe pece of the said selyng: whiche pece was guilte with fine Golde. Ibid., 156 b. The Iawe peces and crestes were karved wyth Vinettes and trailes of savage worke, and richely gilted with gold and Bise.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, li. I … disengaged the *jaw-rope and small gear about the mast.
1886. F. H. H. Guillemard, Cruise of Marchesa, I. 230. The jaw-rope had carried away.
1875. Huxley, in Encycl. Brit., I. 770/1. [The] horny *jaw-sheaths [of Siren] might be compared to those of the Anuran tadpole.
1826. Trewman’s Exeter Flying-Post, 5 July, 3/5.
| Now mind me,—not long were we hous’d when we found | |
| That all our *jaw tackle had run fast aground. | |
| Our words were all froze in the air! |
1831. Capt. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, I. 290. Van would have countermanded this, had I not clapped my hand as a stopper on his jaw-tackle.
1883. J. Hay, Bread-Winners, 218. He had never worked a muscle in his life except his jaw-tackle.
1756. Toldervy, Hist. Two Orphans, III. 75. My *jaw-ty’d tongue no speech could lend. Ibid., III. 166. Come, come … no more of your *jaw-work here.
1802. Morn. Her., in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1803), VI. 29. An event … conducive to jaw-work in every sense of the word.
