jaw-dropping

a feeling of shock or surprise

TRANSLATION

jaw-dropping = umwerfend, atemberaubend — That’s jaw-dropping! Da bleibt einem die Sprache weg!

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

“Behind whose eyes? Why we love a JAW-DROPPING twist ending. The Netflix thriller ‘Behind Her Eyes’ employs one of the wildest twists in recent memory,…”

Benjamin Leigh - The Guardian

Did you
know?

jaw-dropping
adjective phrase

- very surprising or shocking

The Cambridge Dictionary


ORIGIN

This relatively recent phrase was first documented in the early 1980’s and refers to a person’s mouth being open wide in amazement or shock.


EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS

Despite the diversity of human beings on this planet, anger, sadness, fear, happiness, and surprise, are all signified by similar facial expressions. When something is shocking or frightening, the release of stress hormones trigger an increase in blood flow and breathing rate. Jaws drop open to facilitate a greater intake of oxygen, in preparation for fight or flight.

Jaw-dropping also signals potential danger to those around us. Charles Darwin argued that “Every true or inherited movement of expression seems to have had some natural and independent origin. But when once acquired, such movements may be voluntarily and consciously employed as a means of communication.”


SYNONYMS

amazing, appalling, astonishing, astounding, befuddling, bewildering, blindsiding, breathtaking, dumbfounding, eye-opening, eye-popping, flabbergasting, gobsmacked, hair-raising, jarring, JAW-DROPPING, jolting, shocking, shuddersome, startling, stunning, stupefying, surprising.


PRACTICE OWAD
in an English conversation, say something like:

“The recent Netflix series 'Behind Her Eyes' has a JAW-DROPPING ending.”


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Paul Smith

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