What does yawner mean?
Yawner is an informal noun with two related uses. Its dominant modern sense is a disparaging name for a boring or tiresome person: calling someone “a yawner” suggests that their conversation or presence is so unstimulating that listeners may feel the urge to yawn. Less commonly, the word can simply mean a person who is yawning, often in a literal or gently humorous description of someone who seems tired, bored, or disengaged. The word occurs in British and American English but is conversational rather than formal. Because “bore” and “dullard” are more usual in neutral description, yawner is best reserved for informal commentary and clearly marked humorous or disparaging contexts. Its imagery is especially memorable: one person can be the yawner, yet in another sense a yawner is the person whose dullness makes everyone else yawn. This slight overlap between the literal and figurative meanings explains the word’s comic usefulness.
nounAn informal noun for a boring or tiresome person; less commonly, a person who is yawning.
- A boring or tiresome person, especially one whose conversation or presence makes others bored.
- A person who is yawning, often used literally or humorously to suggest tiredness, boredom, or disengagement.
"What a yawner he is—his explanations put the whole audience to sleep."
"The lecture was so dull that the yawner in the back row struggled to stay awake."
"By three o'clock, even the most enthusiastic yawner had slumped in his chair."
The regular plural is yawners, used when referring to more than one person.
"The two yawners in the back row had fallen asleep."
One person can be the yawner, yet in another sense a yawner is the person whose dullness makes everyone else yawn.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does yawner come from?
The English noun yawner was formed from yawn with the agent suffix -er, giving it the basic sense of “one who yawns.” The verb yawn descends from Old English ganian, meaning “to yawn.” English gape and the German gähnen and Dutch gapen are related words reflecting the same inherited root associated with opening the mouth widely.
How yawner is actually used
The word is informal and generally disparaging when it means a boring person. Its more literal sense, referring to someone who is yawning, is often descriptive or gently humorous.