jawbox

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

jaw +‎ box. In old tenements usually placed next to the kitchen window, enabling housewives to talk ("jaw") to each other across the tenement courtyard while doing washing up.

Noun

jawbox (plural jawboxes)

  1. (Scotland, dated) A tenement sink.
    Synonym: jaw-hole
    • 1983, Bernard MacLaverty, Cal (chapter 3, p.90 in the 1998 Vintage paperback edition)
      After a week he had to accept that he was growing a black beard, not because he wanted one, but because he could think of no way of shaving. There was a jaw-box in the tiny kitchen but no taps.
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