yaw-yaw, v.
(ˈjɔːˈjɔː)
[Cf. yaw int.]
intr. a. To say ‘yaw! yaw!’; to talk affectedly. b. To utter inarticulate cries resembling the syllables ‘yaw, yaw’. Hence yawyawdom (nonce-wd.), an affected expression.
| 1854 Dickens Hard T. ii. ii, They liked fine gentlemen... They became exhausted in imitation of them; and they yaw-yawed in their speech like them. 1862 ― in R. C. Lehmann C. D. as Editor (1912) 319 The word ‘shindy’, or any similar yaw-yawdom. 1885 W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle vi. 63 The jackals..broke out into a perfect concert of agonized yelping and yaw-yawing. |