What is "jaws"

n. 1 (plural of jaw English) 2 (context pluralonly English) the mouth 3 (context pluralonly English) the borders of anything which has a mouthlike aspect. 4 (context colloquial eastern Ohio English) a contrarian.

n. holding device consisting of one or both of the opposing parts of a tool that close to hold an object [syn: jaw]

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.

Now considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster, with its release regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of Star Wars (1977). It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple " high-concept" premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. The film ranks fifth on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Jaws is a fictional character in the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, played in both films by Richard Kiel. Jaws is one of the most popular James Bond henchmen and a recurring character in the James Bond video games. His primary role in Ian Fleming's novels is an assassin. He is a highly skilled killer relying on his brute strength and improvising any situation to quickly dispatch his victims.

JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a Refreshable Braille display.

JAWS is produced by the Blind and Low Vision Group of Freedom Scientific, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.

A July 2015 screen reader user survey by WebAIM, a web accessibility company, found JAWS to be the most popular screen reader worldwide; 30.2% of survey participants used it as a primary screen reader, while 43.7% of participants used it often. This level of usage is significantly lower than that found in the January 2014 survey, where the respective figures for JAWS were 50% and 63.9%.

JAWS supports all versions of Windows released since Windows Vista. There are two versions of the program: the home use edition for non-commercial use and the professional edition for commercial environments. Before JAWS 16, the home use edition was called Standard, and only worked on home Windows operating systems. A DOS version, sometimes also known as JDOS, is free.

The JAWS Scripting Language allows the user to use programs without standard Windows controls, and programs that were not designed for accessibility.

Jaws may refer to: __NOTOC__

• Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth
• JAWS (conference), Japan Anthropology Workshop
• Jaws (beach), a big-wave surfing area in Hawaii

Jaws was a theme park attraction based upon the films of the same name. The attraction places guests aboard tour boats for what should be a leisurely tour of Amity Harbor, but instead becomes a harrowing chase between the craft and a very determined great white shark. Jaws is an expanded version of a famous scene on the long-running backlot tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, also inspired by the film, and can be found at Universal Studios Japan near Osaka, and formerly, at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando.

Jaws is an album by saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis with organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1958 for the Prestige label.

Jaws is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System that is loosely based on the film franchise of the same name, specifically Jaws: The Revenge, the fourth and final film in the series. The box art is modeled heavily after the theatrical poster, and the back of the box mentions "...like it's personal", perhaps as a reference to said movie's tagline. However, it does take elements from the first. It is also one of the few LJN-published titles developed by a Japanese company.

There was a separate computer adaptation of the original Jaws movie called Jaws: The Computer Game, released in 1989 by Screen 7 for the Commodore Amiga and for the Commodore 64 as simply Jaws by Box Office Software.

The original soundtrack for Jaws was released on LP by MCA in 1975, and as a CD in 1992, including roughly a half-hour of music that John Williams redid for the album. In 2000, two versions of the score were released: one in a re-recording of the entire Jaws score by Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Joel McNeely, and another to coincide with the release of the 25th anniversary DVD by Decca/Universal, featuring the entire 51 minutes of the original score. In 2005, it was ranked No.6 in AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, a list which compiles the greatest American film scores.

Jaws is a 1974 novel by American writer Peter Benchley. It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town and the voyage of three men trying to kill it. The novel grows out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley struggled as a freelance journalist.

Through a marketing campaign orchestrated by Doubleday and paperback publisher Bantam, Jaws was incorporated into many book sales clubs catalogues and attracted media interest. After first publication in February 1974, the novel was a great success, with the hardback staying on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks and the subsequent paperback selling millions of copies in the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many literary critics finding the prose and characterization lacking despite the novel's effective suspense.

Film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown read the novel before its publication and bought the film rights, selecting Steven Spielberg to direct the film adaptation. The Jaws film, released in June 1975, omitted many of the novel's minor subplots, focusing more on the shark and the characterizations of the three protagonists. Jaws became the highest grossing movie in history up to that point, becoming a watershed film in motion picture history and the father of the summer blockbuster film. Three sequels followed the film.

Jaws is an American film series that started with a 1975 film that expanded into three sequels, a theme park ride, and other tie-in merchandise, based on a 1974 novel. The main subject of the saga is a great white shark, and its attacks on people in specific areas of the United States. The Brody family is featured in all of the films as the primary antithesis to the shark. The original film was based on a novel written by Peter Benchley, which itself was inspired by the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. Benchley adapted his novel, along with help from Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler, into the 1975 film Jaws, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. Although Gottlieb went on to pen two of the three sequels, neither Benchley nor Spielberg returned to the film series in any capacity.

The first film was regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history; it became the father of the summer blockbuster movies and one of the first " high-concept" films. The film is also known for the introduction of John Williams' famous theme music, which was a simple alternating pattern of the E and F notes of a piano. Williams' theme won an Academy Award. The film won other Academy Awards, and was nominated for Best Picture.

The success of Jaws led to three sequels, and the four films together have earned nearly $800 million worldwide in box office gross. The franchise has also seen the release of various soundtrack albums, additional novelizations based on the sequels, trading cards, inspired theme park rides at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Japan, multiple video games, and a musical that premiered in 2004. Although the first film was popular with critics when it was originally released, Jaws 2 received generally mixed reception, and the third and fourth films were critically panned. This reception has spread to the merchandise, with video games seen as poor imitations of the original concept. Nevertheless, the original 1975 film has generally been regarded as one of the greatest films ever, and frequently appears in the top 100 of various American Film Institute rankings.

However, Benchley later regretted he ever wrote the original book considering it encouraged a widespread public fear of sharks, which led to massive culls resulting in the various shark species around the world becoming endangered. As such, he spent most of his life promoting the cause of ocean conservation.

Jaws are an indie pop band formed in Birmingham, England in 2012 after singer Connor Schofield had posted a demo (Cameron) online that received enough positive feedback to encourage him to start a band with friends from Halesowen College. They have often been identified as part of the Digbeth-based B-Town scene and hotly tipped as ones to watch.

Jaws have published two EPs so far, and have also released four singles "Toucan Surf", "Surround You", "Friend Like You" and "Gold". The B side of "Surround You"—"Stay In" featuring on the Ubisoft game Rocksmith 2014. "Gold" was featured in an episode of Hollyoaks. They have toured with The Twang, Peace, Swim Deep, Spector as well as various support slots.

In December 2013 the band announced via their Facebook page that they would be recording a full studio album in 2014 partially funded by the PRS. In April their next single will be released called "Think Too Much, Feel Too Little".

In June 2014 the band announced the Debut album "Be Slowly" would be released on 15 September that year. The band announced over Twitter a tour in September, stopping at Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and plenty more. Support acts being Fickle Friends, Milk Teeth and Brawlers.

On 27 April 2015, JAWS shared the standalone single "Bad Company" via Huw Stephens Radio 1 show.