▪ I. yaw-haw, v.
(ˈjɔːˈhɔː)
[Echoic.]
intr. To laugh rudely or noisily. Hence yaw-haw n., a loud or rude laugh; yaw-hawing ppl. a.
| 1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xix, I had to pucker up my mouth..to keep from yawhawin in her face. 1912 H. Macfall in English Rev. Jan. 334 A booth at a fair, a place set up but to tickle the country-bumpkins into yaw-haws. |
▪ II. yaw-haw
Intended to represent an affected pronunciation characterized by loose articulation in which open vowel sounds predominate. Hence attrib., as n. (= affected person) and v. (cf. yaw int. and v., yaw-yaw v.).
| 1867 E. B. Ramsay Art of Reading 9 All reading where sounding the vowels predominates is indistinct. At Cambridge, in my time, it used to be called a ‘yaw-haw’ reading. 1876 J. Grant One of the ‘600’ vii, That yaw-hawing donkey, Berkeley. |