jaws
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
jaw/ʤɔː/
▶noun
- 1 each of the upper and lower bony structures in vertebrates forming the framework of the mouth and containing the teeth.
■ (jaws) the grasping, biting, or crushing mouthparts of an invertebrate.
- 2 (jaws) the gripping parts of a wrench, vice, etc.
- 3 (jaws) the grasping or destructive power of something: the jaws of death.
- 4 informal tedious talk.
– derivatives
-jawed adjective,
jawless adjective.
-jawed adjective,
jawless adjective.
– origin ME: from OFr. joe ‘cheek, jaw’, of unknown origin.
'jaws' also found in these Oxford entries:
barracuda
- beak
- beaked whale
- bulldog ant
- chops
- crocodile
- crocodile clip
- devil's coach-horse
- dicynodont
- Dobermann
- duckbill
- garfish
- gnathic
- gulper
- hadrosaur
- hake
- hawksbill turtle
- hippopotamus
- jaw
- Jaws of Life
- malocclusion
- maw
- maxillofacial
- monkey wrench
- occlusion
- octopus
- orthodontics
- pincer
- pliers
- pliosaur
- rabbitfish
- ring spanner
- scabbardfish
- sea urchin
- snapper
- snapping turtle
- soldier
- spanner
- stag beetle
- Stillson
- Tasmanian devil
- tooth
- tyrannosaur
- vice
