yaws

UK: /jɔːz/ US: (yôz)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

yaws (yôz), n. (used with a singular v.) [Pathol.]

1. Pathology an infectious, nonvenereal tropical disease, primarily of children, characterized by raspberrylike eruptions of the skin and caused by a spirochete, Treponema pertenue, that is closely related to the agent of syphilis. Also called frambesia, pian. Cf. mother yaw. 

• Carib; see -s³
• 1670–80

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

yaws / jɔːz/ noun

1. (usually functioning as singular) an infectious nonvenereal disease of tropical climates with early symptoms resembling syphilis, characterized by red skin eruptions and, later, pain in the joints: it is caused by the spiral bacterium Treponema pertenue

Etymology: 17th Century: of Carib origin

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

yaw¹ /yɔ/   v. [no object]

1. Nautical, Naval Terms to turn or move away temporarily from a straight course, as a ship, aircraft, or spacecraft:
   The ship yawed to starboard.

n. [countable]

2. Naval Terms the movement of yawing.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

yaw¹ (yô),  v.i. 

1. Nautical, Naval Terms to deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship.
2. Aeronautics (of an aircraft) to have a motion about its vertical axis.
3. Rocketry (of a rocket or guided missile) to deviate from a stable flight attitude by oscillation of the longitudinal axis in the horizontal plane.

v.t. 

4. Nautical, Naval Terms to cause to yaw.

n. 

5. Nautical, Naval Terms a movement of deviation from a direct course, as of a ship.
6. Aeronautics a motion of an aircraft about its vertical axis.
7. Aeronautics, Aerospace an angle, to the right or left, determined by the direction of motion of an aircraft or spacecraft and its vertical and longitudinal plane of symmetry.
8. Rocketry (of a rocket or guided missile)
   • the act of yawing.
   • the angular displacement of the longitudinal axis due to yawing.

• origin, originally uncertain 1540–50

yaw² (yô), n. [Pathol.]

1. Pathology one of the lesions of yaws.

• back formation from yaws 1735–45

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

yaw / jɔː/ verb

1. (intransitive) (of an aircraft, missile, etc) to turn about its vertical axis
   Compare pitch111, roll13
2. (intransitive) (of a ship, etc) to deviate temporarily from a straight course
3. (transitive) to cause (an aircraft, ship, etc) to yaw

noun

1. the angular movement of an aircraft, missile, etc, about its vertical axis
2. the deviation of a vessel from a straight course

Etymology: 16th Century: of unknown origin