▪ I. yawp, yaup, n.
(jɔːp)
Also yop.
[f. next.]
a. A harsh, hoarse, or querulous cry, esp. of a bird.
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl., Yawp, the cry of a sickly bird; or one in distress. 1879 Black Macleod of D. ix, The eagle raised its great wings, and..flapped them..while it uttered a succession of shrill yawps. 1905 Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. 207/2 He can only tell us how bad he is by hideous grimaces and inarticulate yawps. |
b. fig. Applied in contempt to speech or utterance likened to this. Chiefly U.S., sometimes in allusion to Whitman's use.
| 1835 J. H. Ingraham South-West I. 29 ‘Hold your yaup, you youngster you,’ roared the old man in reply. 1844 ‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life N. York I. 114 He looked round as if he wanted to say something..; but I told him to go ahead and hold his yop. 1855 W. Whitman Leaves of Grass 55, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. 1870 ‘Mark Twain’ in Galaxy Oct. 571/1 He..ordered me to ‘hold my yop’. 1882 Stevenson Fam. Stud. 93 When Mr. Spencer found his Synthetic Philosophy reverberated from the other shores of the Atlantic in the ‘barbaric yawp’ of Whitman. 1904 Buffalo (N.Y.) Commercial 25 Aug. 6 When this contest is ended, the insincere and ridiculous yawp about the fierce belligerency of Theodore Roosevelt will be laid away with the other feeble fakes. 1973 Publishers Weekly 26 Mar. 61/3 American readers may miss the experimentation and ‘barbaric yawp’ of avant-garde American poetry. |
▪ II. yawp, yaup, v. Chiefly dial.
(jɔːp)
Also 4 ȝolp, 6 yaulpe, yolp(e, 6–7 yalp, 7, 9 yope.
[Echoic. Cf. yap v. and yelp v.]
1. a. intr. To shout or exclaim hoarsely; to yelp, as a dog; to cry harshly or querulously, as a bird.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 846 What! þay ȝeȝed & ȝolped of ȝestande sorȝe. a 1560 T. Phaer æneid ix. (1562) Ee ij b, Thereupon men shout, y{supt} hye heauen yalping yells. 1573 Baret Alv. Y 3 To Yaulpe and barke like a dogge, and a foxe, gannio. 1580 Fulke Retentive 51 They like impudent dogges yolpe & barke against vs. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 114 To stop their adversaries mouthes, alwayes yolping and crying with hatefull sounds. 1623 R. Jobson Golden Trade 145 The Lyon..remaines feeding..whilest his small seruant [sc. the Jackal] stands barking, and yalping by. 1654–1787 [implied in yawper (yoper), yawping: see below]. 1802 Sibbald Chron. Scot. Poetry IV. Gloss., Yaup,..more commonly denotes the incessant crying of birds. 1880 Spec. Westmoreland Dial. ii. 52 (E.D.D.) We yoped an' shoot't ta egg folk on. 1885 Letts's Househ. Mag. 620/2 ‘That's it!’ yawped Mr. Spoopendyke. ‘You've been thinking again!’ 1915 Daily Mail 12 Mar. 4/5 The Press of the Fatherland yelped and yawped at America's heels. |
b. To speak foolishly or noisily. U.S. colloq.
| 1872 S. Hale Let. 28 Oct. (1919) 90 Perhaps it is just as well, however, not to yawp much about our going alone, as it may be considered loose in America. 1926 T. Beer Mauve Decade vi. 233 Where the boys who badgered Richard Harding Davis for autographs in 1890 will be yawping over ‘Billy Baxter's Letters’ in 1900. |
2. trans. To utter with a strident or harsh voice.
| 1567 Painter Pal. Pleas. II. 161 b, To pacify this immoderate rage which in vaine y{supu} yalpest forth against this troupe. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 198 What more haue I in my Proclamation to yalp out? |
3. intr. To gape. dial. (Cf. gawp v.)
| 1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xxxi, They stand starin and yawpin, all eyes and mouth. 1895 Pall Mall Mag. Jan. 7 ‘Sue! Wot yer yawpin' at thar?’ |
Hence ˈyawping, yauping vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈyawper, yauper (yoper), one that yawps.
| 1576 Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs (1880) 31 The older dogges..cease from yolping. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe Wks. (Grosart) V. 214 The apostacie of the sands from the yalping world was so great, that they ioynd themselues to the maine land of Eastflege. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 97 The yalping of maungie Whelps. 1678 E. Howard Man of Newmarket iv. i. 43 Thou art so earnest still to follow Yopers, that make so much haste to devour a simple Hare. 1787 Grose Provinc. Gloss. (1790), Yaaping, crying in despair, lamenting. Applied to chickens lamenting the absence of their parent hen. 1825 Jamieson, Yauping, part. adj., ill-natured, peevish. 1846 Worcester, Yauper, one that yaups. A. Everett. 1896 Crockett Grey Man xxxvii, The..yawping and crying of the seabirds. 1899 Jesse L. Williams Stolen Story etc. 206 When the time came,..a goodly number of these same yawping lads went to the front to get shot at. |