Dictionary

jawbreaker en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From jaw + breaker.

Meanings

1. A large, extremely hard, boiled candy, typically spherical.
   • Cheeks bulging with stale jawbreakers, we would recite this line to each other, feeling that it sanctified our bond as two Jewish girls in a WASP neighborhood. 2023, Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Penguin, →ISBN, page 45:
   • If somebody microwaves a large jawbreaker and nibbles on the outside, a crack can cause molten candy to burst out and cause painful burns. Exploding jawbreakers have been documented on television news and in police reports. 2005, Keith Zimmerman, MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
2. A long, hard-to-pronounce word.
   • The word “callipygous” is something of a jawbreaker.
   • 'This is not the Berlitz School of Languages, Head of S. If you want to show off your knowledge of foreign jawbreakers, be good enough to provide a crib. Better still, write in English.' 1953, Ian Fleming, “Dossier for M”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 16:
3. (slang) A hard blow to the side of the face.
   • Bendoff went pluckily forward, but only to receive a jawbreaker from Couper's left, […] 1987, James Clarke, Like it was: The Star, 100 Years in Johannesburg, page 9:

Forms

Relateds

crackjaw · niggerball

Synonyms

jaw-twister · mouthful · gobstopper

Translations (5)

fr couille de mammouth (hard candy) · fr boule de mammouth (hard candy) · nl toverbal (hard candy) · fr casse-gueule (hard candy) · ro sfarmă-fălci (hard candy)