欠伸
あくび
noun, suru verb
yawn
See also:
欠伸する (verb form)
Conjugation
| Affirmative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| Present | 欠伸する | 欠伸しない |
| Present polite | 欠伸します | 欠伸しません |
| Past | 欠伸した | 欠伸しなかった |
| Past polite | 欠伸しました | 欠伸しませんでした |
| て form | 欠伸して | 欠伸しなくて |
| ている present | 欠伸している | 欠伸していない |
| ている polite | 欠伸しています | 欠伸していません |
| ている past | 欠伸していた | 欠伸していなかった |
| ている past polite | 欠伸していました | 欠伸していませんでした |
| Conditional ば | 欠伸すれば | 欠伸しなければ |
| Conditional たら | 欠伸したら | 欠伸しなかったら |
| Volitional | 欠伸しよう | — |
| Volitional polite | 欠伸しましょう | — |
| Potential | 欠伸できる | 欠伸できない |
| Passive | 欠伸される | 欠伸されない |
| Causative | 欠伸させる | 欠伸させない |
| Imperative | 欠伸しろ | 欠伸するな |
1.
yawn
The involuntary opening of the mouth wide with a deep breath, typically when tired or bored.
Kanji: normally written in hiragana as あくび. The kanji spelling 欠伸 is a whole-word reading — neither character supplies あ, く, or び on its own — and is rare outside dictionaries and literary writing.
Common patterns
- 欠伸が出る: yawn (literally "a yawn comes out"). This is the everyday phrasing, because yawning is involuntary — you report it happening to you rather than doing it.
- 欠伸をする: yawn, treated as something you do. Used when the yawn is deliberate or when it matters that you were the one who did it, as in an apology or a scolding.
- 欠伸を我慢する: hold a yawn back
- 欠伸を噛み殺す: stifle a yawn (fixed expression, literally "bite it to death")
Common collocations
- 大きな欠伸: a big yawn
- 生欠伸: a half-yawn that never quite comes out. Often mentioned as a sign of 疲れ or of coming down with something, not just of 眠気.
- 欠伸が出るほど退屈: boring enough to make you yawn
Related involuntary body actions: くしゃみ (sneeze), しゃっくり (hiccup), げっぷ (burp). All of these take が出る the same way.
Register: yawning in front of others is read as rudeness or boredom in Japan much as elsewhere, so the word turns up often in apologies and in warnings about meetings and classes.