or jawtwister, subs. (common).—1. A hard or many-syllabled word. JAWBREAKING = difficult.
1839. LEVER, Harry Lorrequer, xx. I’d rather hear the Cruiskeen Lawn … as my old friend … could sing [it] than a score of your high Dutch JAWBREAKERS.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 27. ‘I can’t tumble to that barrikin’, said a young fellow; ‘it’s a JAWBREAKER.’
1872. Chambers’ Miscellany, No. 152, p. 2. The most JAWBREAKING polysyllables were cleared in a flying gallop.
1883. Illustrated London News, 8 Dec., p. 551, col. 1. Such tedious talk, such sledge-hammer humour, and JAW-CRACKING jokes.
2. (pugilists’).—A hard punch on the whisker.
