How to Use yawn in a Sentence

yawn

1 of 2 verb
  • Students were yawning in class.
  • Fans noticed, yawned, and made other plans.
    — Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2025
  • But now a desolate school year, long and full of needs not her own, yawned.
    — Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Chisholm was caught by Fox cameras yawning on the field.
    — Chris Kirschner, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
  • Some people will yawn; others will scratch their head or cover their face.
    — Richie Hertzberg, National Geographic, 7 June 2018
  • The minutes and hours yawned, taut and terrible.
    — Kate Crane, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Some 400 feet of air yawned beneath him across a sandstone abyss.
    — Maya Silver, Outside, 18 Nov. 2025
  • All of this could narrow the yawning racial gaps in our justice system.
    — Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Apr. 2018
  • Just then Gary shuffled out from the bedroom yawning.
    — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 17 Mar. 2026
  • From there, the gap between workers and bosses only yawned wider.
    — Maya Dukmasova, Chicago Reader, 2 May 2018
  • Watching someone yawn – heck, even reading about yawns – can lead you to yawn yourself.
    — Christine Calder, Discover Magazine, 5 July 2018
  • At the box office this weekend the chasm between the hits and the flops was truly yawning.
    — Brent Lang, Variety, 28 May 2023
  • That said, the survey also showed a yawning gender gap on the issue.
    — Susan Page, USA TODAY, 15 Dec. 2019
  • Eventually, the shadows of the trees yawned and stretched and wrapped around us, and a cool breeze blew through the park.
    — Madeleine Aggeler, The Cut, 8 June 2018
  • In the gap between the floor of the garage and slowly-yawning door, a pair of hiking boots appeared.
    — The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 3 June 2018
  • There is a yawning gap in income between countryside and city.
    — The Economist, 12 Oct. 2017
  • Which responses to school closure will invite achievement gaps to yawn wider?
    — Gail Cornwall, Good Housekeeping, 28 July 2020
  • Think hard — hard, hard, hard — and yawn away until everybody meets again, if everybody meets again.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Good old-fashioned chewing, swallowing, or yawning can do the trick.
    — Melissa Willets, Parents, 3 Sep. 2025
  • In fact, yawning sections of trail with deep snow left them a bit exasperated at times.
    — Tegan Hanlon, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Not going to lie, men's fashion at major awards shows errs on the side of being yawn inducing.
    — Ana Escalante, Glamour, 3 Apr. 2022
  • Even if no one else wears a blue service-dog vest, or yawns so conspicuously in front of patients.
    — Maggie Gordon, chicagotribune.com, 24 Sep. 2019
  • That's right — getting a hole in one for Simpson is like yawning for plebeian humans.
    — Katherine Fitzgerald, azcentral, 1 Feb. 2020
  • San Diego yawned, partly because the team became a renter in Carson.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Runners there can easily be dropped off by a cab shortly before the starting gun, yawn and get going.
    — Talya Minsberg, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2023
  • The tool looks at everything from sleeping and crying habits to sweating and how often newborns yawn.
    — Hannah Ray Lambert, Fox News, 30 June 2023
  • If the host is yawning a lot, blowing out candles, putting food away or thanking you for coming, those are other cues to head out.
    — Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 25 Dec. 2025
  • In America there is a yawning partisan gap in trust (see chart 2).
    — The Economist, 3 June 2020
  • The music of folklore takes its time to unfurl, ivory keys yawning at dusk, acoustic strings waking at daybreak.
    — Allaire Nuss, EW.com, 6 Feb. 2024
  • Colicchio yawned twice waiting for service, which backed up as waiters ran a slew of takeout orders out to the front.
    — Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 28 Apr. 2026

yawn

2 of 2 noun
  • I tried to stifle a yawn.
  • Dogs may lick their lips, yawn, stiffen or turn away.
    — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 19 Mar. 2026
  • And if your first response is to yawn, who can blame you?
    — Jim Alexander, Oc Register, 12 Sep. 2025
  • As soon as that yawn is over, then my voice is back to a struggle.
    — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 15 June 2018
  • To be the good guy and not a yawn or a bore is very difficult.
    — Los Angeles Times, 27 Nov. 2020
  • Markets, for the most part, greeted them with a yawn.
    — Anniek Bao, CNBC, 4 May 2026
  • The oohs and aahs over a 100-mph pitch have been replaced by yawns.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2026
  • The chef angle, though a bit of a stretch, did put a fresh spin on a yawn-of-a story.
    — Marni Jameson, orlandosentinel.com, 10 Sep. 2021
  • There, the road’s banked sides give generous lift to trees that yawn and stretch with plenty of room to bend.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 16 May 2017
  • Surovell asked about abolishing the death penalty — and got a big yawn.
    — Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2021
  • In the not so distant past, that position would’ve been yawn-worthy.
    — Tom Benning, Dallas News, 25 June 2020
  • The deeper the bonds, the deeper the yawns, the study suggested.
    — Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2023
  • When a yawn isn't triggered by someone else's, it's called a spontaneous yawn.
    — Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2023
  • Losses to teams that others easily beat are just met with a shoulder shrug and a yawn.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 1 Apr. 2023
  • Not my friends who were already drifting out of my life, gentle and persistent as a yawn.
    — Jen McGuire, Good Housekeeping, 5 May 2021
  • Twists in the plot, when not inducing laughter, elicit little more than a yawn.
    — Charles McNultytheater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Team after good team slaps the Heat around and the Heat attitude is a bored yawn.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2022
  • As far as many Israelis are concerned, this whole Jerusalem affair is a yawn.
    — Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 15 Dec. 2017
  • The powers that be have responded to these actions with, largely, a yawn.
    — Molly Taft, The New Republic, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Marco Rubio, one arm flung over the back of his chair, made no attempt to disguise a yawn.
    — Seth Harp, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
  • After the yawn and the stretch, rats' brain temperatures dropped back to normal.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 20 Sep. 2011
  • The soldiers stifled yawns and the silence between stories grew longer.
    — Greg Jaffe, Anchorage Daily News, 27 May 2018
  • Deja stifled a yawn and cranked up her music; the warring bass and high hat thrummed in her chest and kept her mostly awake.
    — Brittany N. Williams, NOLA.com, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Two to Watch Breweries open here at such a rapid clip, news of yet one more is often greeted with a yawn.
    — Peter Rowe, sandiegouniontribune.com, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Kiritsis is screaming mad and the police’s yawns aren’t helping.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • For decades, the O in O Street downtown might as well have symbolized a big yawn.
    — Tony Bizjak, sacbee, 27 June 2018
  • My forays into the abyss of retail seemed to happen without my noticing, like the onset of a yawn.
    — Hayley Phelan, WSJ, 26 June 2018
  • As for the team itself, the 76ers were on the rise after years of yawn-inducing mediocrity.
    — Scott Cacciola, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2018
  • But the big day meant an early start — and a few stray yawns from the little royal throughout the ceremony.
    — Stephanie Petit, Peoplemag, 6 May 2023
  • Chris and Jason are fun to look at, but their personalities give me an intense case of the yawns.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'yawn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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