jawbreaker

plural jawbreakers · alternative jaw-breaker · alternative jaw breaker

1. A large, extremely hard, boiled candy, typically spherical.

   Cheeks bulging with stale jawbreakers, we would recite this line to each other, feeling that it sanctified our bond as two Jewish girls in a WASP neighborhood.

   2023, Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Penguin, →ISBN, page 45

   1 more example

   If somebody microwaves a large jawbreaker and nibbles on the outside, a crack can cause molten candy to burst out and cause painful burns. Exploding jawbreakers have been documented on television news and in police reports.

   2005, Keith Zimmerman, MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

   Synonyms: gobstopper

2. A long, hard-to-pronounce word.

   The word “callipygous” is something of a jawbreaker.

   1 more example

   'This is not the Berlitz School of Languages, Head of S. If you want to show off your knowledge of foreign jawbreakers, be good enough to provide a crib. Better still, write in English.'

   1953, Ian Fleming, “Dossier for M”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 16

   Synonyms: mouthful, jaw-twister

3. slangboxingA hard blow to the side of the face.

   Bendoff went pluckily forward, but only to receive a jawbreaker from Couper's left, […]

   1987, James Clarke, Like it was: The Star, 100 Years in Johannesburg, page 9