yank 
jageH = Q.ja^en,hwit: seeyacht. TheSw.Dan. 
sense 'hunt' appears to be due to G., and the 
word does not seem to be old in Soand., or to 
exist in AS., etc. Tank has prob. been confused 
in part, as to meaning, withyark; yerk; and the 
whole series to which it belongs is dialectal, 
and without early record.] I. intrans. 1. To 
be in active motion ; move or work quickly ; 
bustle. Imp. Diet— 2. To talk fast or con- 
stantly ; scold ; nag. Imp. Diet. 
n. tram. To move, carry, bring, take, etc., 
with a sudden jerk or jerking motion : usually 
with along, over, or out : as, to yank a fllsh out 
of the water. [Colloq.] 
I don't see the fuu of being yanked all over the United 
States in the middle of August 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 201. 
When the hutt of a room goes on the drink, or takes to 
niopinB by himself, measures are necessary to yank him 
oiU of himself. S- Kipling, Only a Subaltern. 
I guess th' best thing we can do is t' yank our traps out 
of that care an' get started again. 
T. A. Janvier, Aztec Treasure-house, x. 
yank^ (yangk), n. [< yank^, v.'] 1. A quick, 
sharp stroke ; a buffet. [Scotch.] 
I took up my neive an' gae him a yank on the baffat 
tell I gart his bit brass cap rattle against the wa'. 
Hogs;, Brownie of Bodsbeck, xiv. 
2. A jerk or twitch. [Colloq., U. S.]— 3. pi 
Leggings or long gaiters worn in England by 
agricultural laborers. Halliwell. 
7008 
that are purely our owm ; but it is so very plausible as al- 
most to carry conviction of itself. 
J. F. Cooper, Oak Openings, p. 28. 
Yanlree, in the American use, does not mean a citizen of 
the United States as opposed to a foreigner, but a citizen 
of the Northern New England States (Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, &c.), opposed to a Virginian, a Kentuckian, &c. 
De Qutncey, Style, Note 1. 
We have the present Yankee, full of expedients, half- 
master of all trades, inventive in all but the beautiful, full 
of shifts, not yet capable of comfort 
LovieU, Biglow Papers, 1st ser., Int 
2. By extension, a native of the United States. 
[Chiefly a European use.] — 3. A soldier of the 
Federal armies : so called by the Confederates 
during the war of secession. See Yank'^. — 4. 
A glass of whisky sweetened with molasses. 
Bartlett. [New Eng.] [Colloq. in all uses.] 
yappingale 
yankyt (yang'ki), «.; pi. yankies (-kiz). A 
Dutch craft of a kind not definitely known. 
Proceed with thy story in a direct course, without yaw- 
ing like a Dutch yanky. 
Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, iii. (DotriM.) 
yanolite (yan'o-lit), n. Same as axinite. 
yao-pieu (yao'pyen'),ji. [Chinese, lit. ' changed 
in tne kiln ' ; K yao, kiln, furnace, + pien, change, 
transfoi-m.] In ceram., a Chinese vessel which, 
from accident, intentional over-firing, or the 
like, has lost the appearance it would have had 
under ordinary circumstances, the colors being 
changed, fused together, etc., by too greatheat, 
or unequally fused on the different faces. Many 
of the most esteemed pieces of porcelain owe their unusual 
color, or their clouding, mottling, or the like, to accidents 
or irregularities of manufacture of this nature. 
n. a. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of yaourt (yourt), «. [<. Turk, yoy hurt.'] A kind of 
the Yankees: as, Yankee smartness or inven- 
tion; ra«A:cc notions. 
Codfish, tinware, apple-brandy, Weathersfleld onions, 
wooden bowls, and other articles of Yankee barter. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 276. 
Examine him ontside and in, I'd thank ye, 
Morals, Parisian — manners, perfect Yankee. 
Lord Houghton, A Knock at the Door (quoted in 
[N. and (J., 7th ser., XI. 106). 
Ez ef we could maysure stupenjious events 
By the low Yatikee stan'ard o' dollars and cents. 
Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., iv. 
Yankee nation, the United States. [Humorous.]— Yan- 
kee notions. See notion. 
thickened fermented liquor made by the Turks 
of milk curdled in a special way. 
yapi (yap), v. i. ; pret. and pp. yapped, ppr. 
yapping. [Prob. mutative. Cf. yaff, waff^, 
and yaup^.] To yelp or bark. [Prov. Eng.] 
Mr. Transome appeared with a face of feeble delight, 
playing horse to little Harry, who roared and flogged be- 
hind him, while Moro yaptjed in a puppy voice at their 
heels. George Eliot, Felix Holt, xlii. 
Presently he [the dog] yapped, as if in hot chase of a 
rabbit R. D. Blackmore, Kit and Kitty, xxlv. 
yapi (yap), n. [< yap'^, v.] 1. A yelp, as of a 
dog. — 2. A cur. [Prov. Eng.] 
Yank^ (yangk), n. [An abbr. of Yankee.] 
Yankee. [Colloq. or vulgar.] 
"The Fon*" or the equally grovelling " nigger," one oi 
the other, which we do not know, has corrupted "Pollard 
of Richmond." The nation, IV. 286. 
[The word acquired during the war of the rebellion wide 
currency as a nickname or contemptuous epithet among 
the Confederates for a Union soldier, the Confederates 
themselves being in like spirit dubbed Johnnies or Bebe 
by the Union soldiers.] 
yankeelf (yang'ke), a. [A dubious word, in 
spelling prob. conformed to Yankee^, being, if a 
A Yankeedom (yang'ke-dum), ?i. [< Yankee^ + yap" (yap), «. A dialectal form of yfp. Halliwell. 
-dom.] 1. The region inhabited by Yankees, in yap3j r. ». Seeyaup'^^. 
any sense of that word. yape (yap), r. i. See yanp'^. 
Located as it is on the confines of Egypt and of Yankee- yaply (yap'li), adv. A dialectal form of yeply. 
domin this State [Illmois], it has done a good work inboth yapo'^, yapock (yap'ok), n. [Also yapach, oyap- 
The Independent, quoted in Bartlett's 
[Americanisms, p. 768. 
2. Yankees collectively considered. 
Up the turning vi4 Galileo they climb, to the Basilica at 
the top, . . . hackneyed as only Yankeedom and Cockney- 
dom, rushing hand in hand through all earth's sacred- 
nesses, can hackney. Rhoda Broughton, Kl»&, y'M. 
genuine word, prob. for *jo»fcte or *.i/a«A,y, smart, Yankee-Doodlet(yang'ke-do'dl), «. A Yankee : 
active (as a noun, Sc. yankie, a sharp, clever, a humorous use, from a popular air so named, 
forward woman), < yanki- + -iel or -jA, equiv. [Bare.] 
to yanking, active : see yanking. Cf . Yankee^.] j n,jgijt have withheld these political noodles 
Spanking; excellent. Also used adverbially. From knocking their heads against hot ronJ-ee Doodiw. 
,r . 1, » 1 *».„ •i™.-^ «» »i,o ♦o.m vonVoo Moore, Pavody of a Celebrated Letter. 
You may wish to know the origin of the term Yankee. ■ ■" 
Take the best account of it which your friend can pro- Yankeefied (yang'ke-fid),n. ^i Yankee ^ + -J y + 
cure. It was a cant, favorite word with farmer Jonathan .(,^2 T Having tte appearance or manner of a 
Hastings, of Cambridge, about 1713. Two aged ministers, YnTiVee • chflractpristae of a Yankee fColloa ] 
who were at the college in that town, have told me they re- lanliee, cnaractensiic or a lanKee. L'-'0""q-J 
membered it to have been then in use among the students, The Colonel whittled away at a bit of stick in the most 
but had no recollection of it before that period. The in- Yankeefied way possible. 
ventor used it to express excellency. A Yankee good ' A Stray Yankee in Texas, p. 113. (Bartlett.) 
horse or Fa.ifee cider and the like, were an excellent Yankee-gang (yang'ke-gang), n. An arrange- 
good horse and excellent cider. i<»ii^oo 6«""6 W 6 .B ?„\ „j„„,.„j f„_ 1„„- 
Dr W Gordon Hist Ainer. War (ed. 1789), I. 324. ment in a sawmill (in Canada) adapted tor logs 
Yankee^ (yang'ke), n. and a. [Formerly also of 21 inches or less in diameter. It consists of 
ock: so named from the river Oyapok, between 
French Guiana and Brazil.] The South Ameri- 
can water-opossum, Chironectes rnriegatus. It is 
Yankey and "Yanky (in pi. Yankies) ; origin un- 
certain, (a) According to a common statement, 
Yankee, as used in the plural Yankees, is a var. 
of Yenkees or Yengces or Yaungliees, a name said 
to have been given by the Massachusetts In- 
dians to the English colonists, being, it is sup- 
posed, an Indian coiTuption of the E. word Eng- 
lish, or, as some think, of the F. Anglais, English 
(in the latter case the statement must refer to 
the Indians of Canada, the only ones in contact 
with the French ) . The word is said to have been 
adopted by the Dutch on the Hudson, who ap- 
plied it to the people of New England (it is said, 
" in contempt," but prob. not more in contempt 
than any other designation of them). (6) In an- 
other view, the name Yankee was derived from 
the adj. yankee as given under yankee^. Some 
connect yankee^ with the preceding theory by 
two sets of gang-saws, having parallel ways in the imme- 
diate vicinity of each other. One is the slabbing-gang, 
which reduces the log to a balk and slab boards. The 
balk is then shifted to the stock-gang, which rips it into 
lumber. E. H. Knight. 
Yankeeism (yang'ke-izm), n. [< Yankee^ + 
-ism.] 1. Yankee ways or characteristics. 
"I confess I had feared that Lily's impetuous ways- her 
— her — " "' Flamboyant l'(7»il:«ei«m,'Mr. Gore-Thompson 
called it," suggested Mrs. Clay. " We are from the South- 
westoriginally," rather stiffly answered Mrs. Floyd-Curtis, 
who took Yankeeiem to cover the reproach of a New Eng- 
land birthplace. 
jifrg. Burton Harrison, The Anglomaniacs, i. 
2. A locution or a practice characteristic of 
Yankees, specifically of the inhabitants of New 
England. 
Cussedness . . . and cuss, ... in such phrases as "He 
done it out o" pure cussedness," and "He is a nateral 
cuss," have been commonly thought Yankeeisms. ... But 
i/0!('«a, Biglow Paiwrs, 2d ser., Int 
Vapok {ChircHectes varirgatits^. 
one of the smaller opossums, rather larger than the house- 
r&i, with large naked ears, long scaly tail, and handsomely 
variegated fur. It is a po<'d swimmer, resembles the otter 
in habits, and feeds on fish and other aquatic animals, 
yapon (ya'pon), )i. [Also j^awpon, 2/«i>ow ; prob. 
ot Amer. Ind. origin.] An evergreen shrub or 
small tree of the holly kind. Ilex vomitoria, 
better known as /. Cassine, found from Virginia 
around the coast to Texas, thence to Arkansas. 
It is generally a tall shrub sending up shoots from the 
ground, and forming dense thickets, but in Texas some- 
neither is our own. 
assuming it to be a corruption of the Indian yanfeer (yang'ker), n. [< yank^ + -erl. In 
Yengees or YenAees or Yankees as applied to def. 3 cf. D. wnAer, abawleri brawler, lit. yelp- 
the English, as if 'English' articles meant ne- <; juni-g,, ydp, bark.] 1. A smart blow. 
cessarily 'excellent' articles. Others identify 
Yankee'^ with yankee^, ' excellent, smart ' ; but 
this sense does not seem to have been common, 
if existent, in New England use ; and the theory 
is otherwise untenable.] I. n. 1. A citizen of 
New England. 
From meanness first this Portsmouth Yankey rose. 
And still to meanness all his conduct flows. 
Oppression, A Poem by an American (Boston, 1765). 
[(Webster.) 
When Yankies, skiU'd in martial rule, 
First put the BHti-sh troops to school. 
TrumMiU, McFingal, i. 
Yankies — a term formerly of derision, but now merely 
of distinction, given to the people of the four eastern 
States. Trurnbull's McFingal (5th Eng. ed.), Edit^jr's note. 
For oureelves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the 
sobriquet of Yankees, which is in every man's mouth, and 
of which the derivation appears to puzzle all our philolo- 
gists, is nothing but a slight corruption of the word " Yen- 
geese," the term applied to the "English "by the tribes to 
whom they first l>ecame known. We have no other au- 
thority for this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures 
2. A" great falsehood; a plumper. [Scotch.] 
"Ay, billy, that is a womiter.'" said Tam aside. "When 
ane is gaun to tell a lie, there 's naething like telling a 
plumper at aince." 
Hogg, Three Perils of Man, I. 336. (Jainieson.) 
3. Same as yankie, 2. Imp. Diet. 
yankie (yang'ki), n. [< !/a«A-l + -('fil, -y^. Cf. 
i/ankee'^.] 1. A sharp, forward, clever woman. 
[Scotch.] — 2. One who speaks or scolds inces- 
santly. Imp. Diet. 
yanking (yang'king), p. a. [Ppr. of ya«Al, ».] 
1. Active; pushing; thoroughgoing. [Scotch.] 
"Ye'U be nae bagman, then, after a'?" "No," said the 
traveller. . . . " Weel, I canna say but I am glad o' that 
— I canna bide their yanking way of knapping English at 
every word." Scott, St Ronan's Well, ii. 
2. Jerking; pulling. [U. S.] 
That poor Emery Ann had had a yanking old horse, and 
a wretchedly uncomfortable saddle ; . . . the wonder was 
that she had stayed on at all. 
Mrs. Whitney, Sights and Insights, xxix. 
Yapon (//fx 7vmitcria'). 
I, branch with fruits; a, branch with male flowers. 
times assumes a tree-like habit It bears an abundance 
of scarlet berries of the size of a pea, and branches ccivertjd 
with these are sent north for winter decoration. Its leaves 
have an emetic and purgative property, and a decoction 
of them was the famous black drink of tlie southern In- 
dians. Its use was both ceremonial and medicinal, and 
to partake of it large numlwrs of them went down to the 
coast every spring. Also called easnena, and Appalachian, 
Carolina, nnd South Sea tea. 
yappingale, «. Same as yaffingale. 
