Yank, n.2 (a.)
1. Colloq. abbreviation of Yankee.
| 1778 Conquerors 14 Give me five hundred brave and chosen men, I'll drive the Yanks from north to south again. 1834 R. H. Froude in Newman's Lett. (1891) II. 77 The Yank edition of the ‘Christian Year’. 1872 Schele de Vere Amer. 23 During the war the Yanks became the universal designation of Federal soldiers in the Confederacy, even as they were called Rebs—not Rebels—by Northern men. 1886 All Year Round 14 Aug. 35 As clever at a trick as a Yank. |
2. An American car.
| 1959 Listener 4 June 982/1 The young labourer..will invest his cash in buying a car ‘on the 'ire’—not a modest second-hand British product but a ‘big Yank’. 1977 Hot Car Oct. 11/3 It's not raunchy like a yank but it sure is clean and ripe for customising. |
3. Comb. ˈYankland nonce-wd., the land of the Yankees, America.
| 1834 R. H. Froude in Newman's Lett. (1891) II. 37 When I shall go to Yankland I do not know. |