December 30, 2011 - Word of the Day: yawn

When a person is tired or bored, he or she yawns:

She's yawning.

• It's natural to yawn when you are tired.
• It's polite to cover your mouth when you yawn.
• Students express boredom in class by yawning.
• If I'm bored, I yawn.
• If a movie is boring, I yawn. (Note the difference between "bored" and "boring.")
• The old dog yawned and stretched after waking up.

You can also use "yawn" as a noun:

• It's hard to stifle a yawn when you are really tired.
• One of my students let loose with a loud yawn in class. That was really rude.

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