▪ I. yap, n.1
(jæp)
[Echoic. Cf. yawp.]
1. a. A dog that yaps; a yelping cur. Now dial.
| 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. i. 4 Those bawling yappes, that barke rather of fashion, then fiercenes. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables cclxxxiv. 248 'Tis a Common Thing upon the Passing of a Strange Dog through a Town, to have a Hundred Curs Bawling at his Breech, and Every Yap gets a Snap at him. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia. |
b. A fool, someone easily taken in; also, an uncultured or unsophisticated person. dial. and U.S. slang.
| c 1894 C. H. Hoyt Texas Steer (1899) iii. 6 Instead of his being the only ‘yap’, as he calls it, in Congress there were about two hundred other members. 1895 W. Stevens Let. 4 Aug. (1967) 6 Paul and Several other Yaps are up with them. 1898 B. Kirkby Lakeland Words 157 Yap, a chap 'at's a bit ov o gomeril. 1901 ‘Flynt’ & ‘Walton’ Powers that Prey i. iii. 21 This yap from the country. Ibid. iii. i. 60 I've seen those yaps come to town an' throw up their hands at sights that a Bowery kid wouldn't drop a cigarette snipe to see. 1915 W. Churchill Far Country xxiv. 452 The yaps that listen to him don't understand him, but somehow he gets under their skins. 1926 J. Black You can't Win iv. 36 You are just the kind of a yap that gets up in the middle of the night and hides his money so carefully that he has to have a policeman find it for him in the morning. 1977 New Musical Express 12 Feb. 12/2 Then this yap starts yowling about anarchy,..and eventually the record seems to end in the middle. |
2. a. A sound expressible by the syllable ‘yap’; a short sharp bark or cry.
| 1826 Lamb Ess., Pop. Fallacies xiii, But yap, yap, yap!—what is the confounded cur? 1864 Daily Tel. 8 Oct., A small dog,..giving a quick series of sharp low barks, or yaps. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 258 A weasel rushes past... He utters a strange startled ‘yap’. 1901 Pall Mall Mag. July 328 The sub. gave a little yap of joy. |
b. The mouth. U.S. slang.
| 1900 Dialect Notes II. 70 Yap, the mouth. 1937 J. Weidman I can get it for you Wholesale i. 8 Every time you open your yap to say something. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 43 There was a guy screaming his yap off next to him,..holding his face. 1977 H. Fast Immigrants iv. 243 They know that if they open their yaps, we'll close them down. |
c. Idle or loquacious talk; chatter; = yawp, yaup n. b. slang.
| 1907 Dialect Notes III. 204 Yap, offensive or superfluous talk. ‘Shut up your yap.’ 1926 Kipling Debits & Credits 314 He'd preserved it in his head through all those weeks..o' Bert's yap. 1928 A. P. Herbert Trials of Topsy 133 All this pragmatical yap about tea being a necessity and beer being a vice. 1945 Coast to Coast 1944 1 It wasn't much fun listening to all that yap when it really didn't mean a thing. 1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 21 Never mind that yap. Where's the tucker? |
d. A chat. slang.
| 1930 Sayers & ‘Eustace’ Documents in Case 145 I'd like to have a yap with somebody who talks my language. 1957 R. Lawler Summer of Seventeenth Doll ii. i. 66 Real ear-basher he is, always on for a yap. |
▪ II. yap, yaup, a. Chiefly Sc. and north.
(jap, jɑp)
Forms: 4–6 ȝape, 5 ȝop(e, 5–6 ȝaip(e, 6 yaip, 8–9 yap, 9 yaup.
[Northern ME. ȝape, with rare southern var. ȝop, representing ᵹeáp, alteration of OE. ᵹéap yepe by conversion of the falling into a rising diphthong.]
1. Clever, cunning; shrewd, astute; nimble, active: = yepe 1.
| 13.. Northern Passion (H.) 1944 Ȝe haue ȝape men him forto ȝeme. c 1375 Cursor M. 9019 (Fairf.) Haue he bene be-fore neuer sa ȝape [Cotton yepe] Fra þen I telle him for a nape. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints v. (Johannes) 318 Of þar ydolis þe bischope, Aristodemus, þat wes ȝape, Raisit a gret sedicione In þe puple of þat towne. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6642 A ȝop knyght & a ȝonge. a 1450 Myrc Par. Pr. 1651 Bvt, confessour, be wys and ȝop, And sende forth þese to þe byschop. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 628 The ȝaip ȝeman to the ȝet is gane. a 1508 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 79 Ane grume,..Ȝaip, and ȝing. 15.. Christ's Kirk 100 (Bann. MS.) A yaip yung man,..Lowsd of a schot. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Yap, apt, quick. 1891 ‘H. Haliburton’ Ochil Idylls 40 I'm juist as yap an' yauld As e'er was youth. |
† 2. Eager or ready, esp. to do something. Obs.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 602 Ȝaipe, thocht he ȝong was, to faynd his offens. c 1500 Rowll's Cursing 205 (Bann. MS.) With gaipand mowth richt yaip to swelly. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. ii. 88 The byssy knaipis and verlettis of his stabill About thame stud, full ȝaip and seruyabill. 1728 Ramsay Daft Bargain 11 [He] seem'd right yap His mealtith quickly up to gawp. |
3. Eager or ready to eat, hungry.
| 1768 Ross Helenore i. 20 Right yape she yoked to the pleasing feast. a 1774 Fergusson Rising of Session Poems (1845) 29 The farmers' sons, as yap as sparrows. 1832 Carrick in Whistle-Binkie (Scotch Songs) Ser. i. (1839) 74 Like leeches when yaup. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb ii, Gi'e the bairns a bit piece,..the like o' them's aye yap. |
▪ III. yap, v.
Also yap-yap.
[Echoic. Cf. yawp.]
1. intr. To bark sharply, as a small dog; to yelp.
| 1668 [see yapping vbl. n.]. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia. 1854 R. S. Surtees Handley Cr. i, Up come the hounds..yelping, yapping, puffing, and blowing. 1865 A. Manning Belforest II. 100 A little dog that..yap-yapped at every visitor. 1901 Meredith Poems, Forest Hist. xvii, Where long forlorn the lone dog whines and yaps. |
2. transf. To speak snappishly.
| 1864 ‘Annie Thomas’ D. Donne III. 204 Dora was not one of the women who yap and scream in wrath or excitement. 1893 Kipling Many Invent. 130 Ortheris yapped indignantly. |
b. To talk idly or loquaciously; to chatter. Also trans., with quoted words as obj. slang (orig. dial.).
| 1886 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-Bk. 844 Yappy,..to chatter. The use of the word is distinctly depreciatory. Mind yer work, and neet bide there yappin. 1893 Dartnell & Goddard Gloss. Words Wilts. 185 Yap, Yop, to talk noisily. ‘What be a yopping there for?’ 1898 R. Blakeborough Wit, Character, Folklore, & Customs N. Riding Yorks. 473 Yap, to talk foolishly. 1899 S. Crane Monster xviii. 76, I told him to keep his trap shut. But then you know how he'll go all over town yapping about the thing. 1922 S. Lewis Babbitt x. 141 He hands me the cold-boiled stare and yaps, ‘I dunno, friend, I'll see.’ 1937 J. Weidman I can get it for you Wholesale iii. 28 You've been yapping away. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) xix. 315 Len wished Alec wouldn't yap so much. 1963 Australasian Post 14 Mar. 51/2 If you want to yap on like a drongo in the DTs..go ahead: be a gig! 1975 Daily Tel. 30 June 13/7 A lot of women who are happy to yap away normally, became tongue-tied when they had to talk and drive. 1985 A. T. Ellis Unexplained Laughter 49 They end up writing books about it and yapping away on the television. |
Hence ˈyapping vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈyappingly adv.; also ˈyapper, a dog or person that yaps.
| 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 499 Some dozen *yappers and yellers of all shapes and breeds. 1901 Longm. Mag. May 46 His enemies said ‘Job wer' a proper yapper’. |
| 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 243 A Voice not unlike the *yapping of a foysting Cur. 1891 Conan Doyle White Company ix, The shrill yapping of the hounds. 1894 Sat. Rev. 3 Mar. 214 There was some rather feeble yap yapping at the Peers. |
| 1865 A. Manning Belforest I. 265 Every little *yap-yapping dog. 1868 M. E. Braddon Dead Sea Fr. xxv, Half a dozen little yapping dogs..assailed me. |
| 1924 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 128/1 Bob danced *yappingly around him. |