jaw in lap
- idiom
- Informal
:
quedarse con la boca abierta
- When she saw the final bill, her jaw in lap expression said it all.
Examples
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After hearing the unexpected announcement, I sat there with my jaw in lap.
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The magician's last trick left every child's jaw in lap.
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Wow! That was a jaw in lap moment!
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When she heard the news, her jaw in lap expression said it all!
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After hearing the unexpected announcement, I sat there with my jaw in lap, completely stunned.
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When she saw the magician's last trick, her jaw in lap look revealed her astonishment.
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The shocking news left everyone in the room with their jaw in lap and eyes wide open.
Synonyms
17
3.9
A very stunned and numb feeling after a sudden bad event
Antonyms
How Astonished
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase creates a vivid literal image (a jaw ending up in someone’s lap) that cues extreme surprise, so a learner who knows 'jaw' and 'lap' can plausibly infer the general idea. However, this is a metaphorical, non‑standard formulation rather than a regular compositional pattern in English, so the exact idiomatic sense may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Jaw in lap comes from a strong, funny picture: someone opens their mouth so wide the lower jaw looks like it has dropped into their lap after seeing something amazing. That's why the phrase means 'very shocked' or 'astonished'.