jawbone

The jawbone is the lower bone of the mouth, also called the mandible. It holds the lower teeth and moves when you chew, speak, or open your mouth. You can use the word for a human jawbone or an animal one, so it often appears in anatomy, fossils, and stories about bones or remains.

The word also has a verb use. To jawbone someone means to keep talking in order to persuade, push, or pressure them into doing something, usually without using formal power. In that sense, the word is common in political and business writing, where a public figure may try to change behavior just by speaking.

The jawbone is the lower jaw, the bone that carries the lower teeth and moves when a person or animal eats or speaks. In careful anatomical English, it is the mandible. In everyday writing, though, "jawbone" is often the plain, direct word people choose when talking about the lower jaw itself, an injury to it, or a bone found in an animal, a fossil, or human remains.

That literal sense is still the main one. A doctor may examine a broken jawbone. A scientist may study an animal's jawbone to learn what it ate. A writer may describe a face by its jawbone, especially when focusing on shape or structure. The word can also appear in older stories and religious writing, most famously in the Biblical story of Samson and the jawbone of a donkey.

There is also an important verb use: to jawbone means to talk to someone in a steady, pressing way so that they will act as you want. This often suggests influence without direct force. A government official might jawbone banks into changing their behavior, or a manager might jawbone a team into finishing work faster. In that sense, the word carries the idea of persuasion mixed with pressure.

So the word has two main lives in English. As a noun, it names the lower jaw bone. As a verb, it describes trying to get results through talk alone. Together, those uses give "jawbone" a practical place in both physical description and public language.