jaws

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of jaw.

   The wolf clamped its jaws around the bone and dragged it away.

   Tension built in his jaws as he clenched his teeth in anger.

   Note

   The everyday plural often counts as one thing. A wolf's jaws are upper and lower working together as a single biting structure. The same plural carries the figurative jaws, a mouth or way of entrance, and the mechanical jaws, a pair of opposing parts that grasp or crush. Keep it apart from the verb form "she jaws", which has the same spelling but belongs to jaw meaning to scold or to talk.

2. 2
   nouncountableplural

   The mouth, considered as the opening through which a person eats and speaks.

   She told the heckler to keep his jaws shut during the show.

   The dog worked the treat around in its jaws before swallowing.

   Similarmouth, maw, trap

   Note

   Here the word exists only in the plural, so it takes plural agreement: his jaws are shut, never a singular jaw standing for the whole mouth. Treat it as a single unit that happens to be grammatically plural, the way scissors or trousers are.

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   The bordering parts of something with a mouthlike form, such as a narrow pass or the gripping parts of a tool.

   The river surged through the narrow jaws of the gorge.

   The vise's steel jaws held the timber firmly in place.

   Similarmouth, neck

   Note

   Workshops and billiard tables both use it. You open the jaws of a wrench as wide as they will go, and a ball can wobble in the jaws of a pocket and still not drop. It is always plural and usually framed as the jaws of something, naming the object whose edges close like a mouth.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of jaw.

   The old foreman jaws at length about how things used to be done.

   My neighbor jaws across the fence until the sun goes down.

   Note

   One form stands for several verbs. A sergeant who jaws a recruit is scolding him, and that use is transitive. A neighbor who jaws over the fence is simply talking, which is informal. On a pool table, a ball that jaws sticks in the pocket's mouth instead of dropping. In Scotland it can also mean pours or splashes. The context, not the -s ending, tells these verbs apart.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A person who habitually disagrees or takes the opposing view; a contrarian.

   Her grandfather was the family jaws, never letting a claim pass unchallenged.

   The new councilman proved a born jaws, opposing every measure on principle.

   Similarcontrarian, naysayer, dissenter, objector

   Oppositeconformist, yes-man

   Note

   A regional word from eastern Ohio, used in casual speech rather than writing. Its grammar is the surprise: despite the -s, it is a singular count noun for one person, so one person is a jaws and is called a born jaws. Outside that region, listeners may hear it as the plural of jaw, so it needs context to be understood.

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