Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
jawbone (v.)
means “to try to persuade by means of appealing publicly, rather than by using one’s authority or public office or the like,” as in The president tried to jawbone the union leaders into bargaining further, rather than requiring them to do so under the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Law. Jawbone is now Standard, although conservatives might prefer not to use it in the most Formal or Oratorical of contexts. It is as graphic as the verb to jaw, a Standard Conversational and Informal word for “talk vigorously.”
