jaw-bone, jawbone
(ˈdʒɔːbəʊn)
[f. jaw n.1 + bone.]
1. Any bone of the jaws; spec. each of the two forming the lower jaw in most mammals, or the whole bone formed by their combination in others.
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xxvi. 562 He gaff constans soo grete a stroke vpon the ere, that he bare it awaye wyth all the iawe bone. 1551 Bible Judg. xv. 15 He founde a iaw-bone of a rotten asse..and slewe a thousande men therewith. 1626 Bacon Sylva §750 The Iaw-Bones haue no Marrow Seuered, but a little Pulpe of Marrow diffused. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 129 ¶7 It [a tooth] belong'd to the Jaw-Bone of a Saint. 1793 Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. III. xx. 104 The Chinese..appear to have broad cheeks with projecting jaw-bones. 1870 Bryant Iliad II. xvii. 190 The javelin entered underneath the ear By the jaw-bone. Mod. A pair of whale's jaw-bones forming a gateway. |
2. An animal's jaw-bone used as a musical instrument; also, castanets or a jew's harp.
| [1790 W. Beckford Descr. Acct. Jamaica II. 387 Their musical instruments..consist of..the jaw-bone of an animal, from which is produced a harsh and disagreeable sound.] 1844 in C. Cist Cincinnati Misc. (1845) I. 14/2 Fowler..found the truant..at a dance house..playing the jaw bones or Castanets. 1952 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. (1958) v. 46 By the end of the 1880s New Orleans Negro musicians were no longer playing jawbones, hide⁓covered casks, or bamboo tubes. 1970 P. Oliver Savannah Syncopators 109 Jawbone, jawbone of a mule, ass, cow or other domestic animal used as a rattle. A North American plantation instrument. The jawbone was also struck or played with a nail or length of iron. |
3. Credit. N. Amer. (orig. Canadian) slang.
| 1862 Times 21 Oct. 9/4 Individuals who, in digger's parlance, live on jawbone (credit). 1885 A. S. Hill From Home to Home 413 His ready money gone, he has nothing to live on but ‘jawbone’, i.e. credit. 1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 33 Jawbone, credit. 1970 New Yorker 31 Oct. 130/3 A young Canadian..started this film on a small grant..and apparently finished it on jawbone and by deferring processing costs. 1971 A. P. McInnes Dunlevy 54 No jaw-bone credit is allowed and all bets must be matched with goods. |
Hence jawboning U.S. slang, name applied to a policy, first associated with the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (1963–1969), of urging management and union leaders to adopt a policy of restraint in wage and price negotiations. Also in extended use. Also (as a back-formation) jaw-bone v.
| 1966 N.Y. Times 2 Jan. iv. 2 Every price increase that happens to catch the public's eye must be ‘jawboned’ to death by the Government. 1969 Time 19 Sept. 32 Since June, Feather has been jawboning his union chiefs on the virtues of labor discipline on the shop floor. 1969 Time 10 Oct. 57 As for jawboning, Nixon's Republican advisers consider it unfair and almost immoral to single out individual companies or industries. 1970 Daily Tel. 19 June 15 Policy will almost certainly concentrate on ‘jawboning’, the American tactic of trying belatedly to talk both sides of industry out of outlandish wage and price increases. 1970 Harper's Mag. Mar. 48 Lecturing business and labor on their responsibilities to hold down prices and wages—jawboning as it was called in the Johnson Administration—has been foregone. 1970 Times 7 Nov. 7/1 He criticized the Nixon Administration's decision on coming to office to drop the practice of ‘jawboning’, or presidential persuasion, on the prices and wages front. |