lockjaw
/ˈlɒkdʒɔː
/noun [mass noun]
1(Especially in non-medical use) tetanus: for hundreds of years the most dreaded diseases were leprosy and lockjaw...
- Symptoms of the infection include muscle rigidity and spasms, particularly of the face and jaw, hence its common name lockjaw.
- Tetanus, also called lockjaw, is a disease with uncontrolled muscle spasms caused by a bacterium in a local wound.
- Mrs Wilby said she had previously seen tetanus - often known as lockjaw - in animals.
1.1Spasm of the jaw muscles, causing the mouth to remain tightly closed, typically as a symptom of tetanus. The technical medical term is trismus. if your child develops lockjaw or muscle spasms—particularly after sustaining a wound—seek medical attention right away figurative I laughed until I got lockjaw...
- It's a terrible and often fatal disease starting with muscle spasms in the jaw and face, called lockjaw, then spreading.
- Cephalic tetanus, the least common, causes muscle spasms in the face, leading to a classic case of lockjaw.
- If tetanus attacks the jaw muscles it causes lockjaw.
1.2 [usually as modifier] US informal An accent associated with the upper class of the north-eastern US, characterized by a supposed lack of movement of the mouth and jaw: he disdained the preppy men with lockjaw accents who populated Nantucket during the summer...
- With his lockjaw voice and nose for journalistic stunts, George was a WASP daredevil.
- It is hard to imagine two snobbish East Coast intellectuals with lockjaw patrician accents being invited onto prime-time television now to opine on the hot-button issues of the day.
- He dressed himself in white, popped his collar toward the heavens, picked up a mallet, and announced in his bogus rich boy's lockjaw, "Croquet anyone?"
Derivatives
lockjawed
- Language was beyond me ... I was lockjawed.
- Gloria Upson is Patrick's snobbish fiancee with a lockjawed seaboard accent.
- He glared into the crowd with a lockjawed expression.