Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
lockjaw [lok-jaw] EXAMPLES|WORD ORIGIN noun Pathology. tetanus in which the jaws become firmly locked together; trismus. Liberaldictionary.com
Origin of lockjaw First recorded in 1795–1805; lock1 + jaw1 Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 Examples from the Web for lock-jaw Historical Examples of lock-jaw
No one who had ever seen death,” answered he, “could mistake it in the case of lock-jaw.
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
He objected to going to a doctor even after I warned him of lock-jaw.
William Heyliger
Remember vaguely that lock-jaw often follows a wound on the hand.
Punch, or the London Charivari, November 4th 1893
Various
You don’t feel like you were going to have lock-jaw, do you, Mr. Culchard?
F. Anstey
I tell you that the scratch of a pin has sometimes produced the lock-jaw.
O.E. Fuller
British Dictionary definitions for lock-jaw lockjaw noun pathol a nontechnical name for trismus, tetanus Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for lock-jaw n.
also lockjaw, 1786, earlier locked-jaw (1765), popular name for trismus, also applied to tetanus, from lock (v.) + jaw.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper lock-jaw in Medicine lockjaw [lŏk′jô′] n. tetanus trismus The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
