Green’s Dictionary of Slang

yap v.1

[dial. yap, to talk loudly, foolishly]

1. (also yap it up) to talk, to make a noise, esp. to shout at, like a dog; thus yapper, n. a gossip; yapping n. and adj.

[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 196: A man with a snarling manner, or replete testy replies — yappeth.
[UK]J. Mills Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 253: What are ye all yapping for? I am not deaf.
[UK]‘George Eliot’ Felix Holt II I 143: Moro yapped in a puppy voice at their heels.
[UK]G.R. Sims ‘The New Cure’ Dagonet Ditties 101: My fingers I can snap / At the Opposition folly, / And the Parnellites who yap.
[US]J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 384: ‘I’m starvin’, father,’ I yapped.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Nov. 4/7: To stand up there in Parliament / And yap / And yap / And yap.
[NZ]N.Z. Observer 6 June 4/1: He asked no e‘what are you yapping at?’.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 23: I’m yappin’ to me cobber uv me mash . . . / I’ve done me dash!
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 15 Jan. 5/1: One or two of the yappers have been keeping fairly quiet lately.
[UK]Union Jack 5 May 17: Well, what of it you yapping coward?
[US]S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 420: Next thing, I suppose you’ll be yapping about free speech. Free speech!
[UK]Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 79: I’ve hurried along Piccadilly and felt the hot breath of the toucher on the back of my neck and heard his sharp, excited yapping.
[US]G. Milburn ‘Hash’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 212: We braced a gent on the downtown side, / And told him our story straight, / He didn’t yap for a dick, but grinned.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 157: I kept yapping at them every time they drifted off [...] from the pure style.
[Aus]‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 13: How difficult it is for the foreigner, who has learned good English from books, to understand what the blazes they are yapping about!
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 88: Of course the kid started yappin but they took care of it.
[UK]P. Theroux Family Arsenal 202: I thought she had more sense than to go yapping about her sordid past.
[Aus]B. Humphries Complete Barry McKenzie 11: Reckon I’m yappin’ to meself again.
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 141: The sounds of my co-workers yapping it up and tossing ’em down.
[UK]Guardian Saturday Rev. 12 June 9: She can also yap away merrily about primitive condoms.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 28 Jan. 7: A cross-looking girl with a finger in one ear is yapping: ‘Well tell Sebastian to get his arse over here right now.’.
[US]F. Bill ‘Trespassing betwen Heaven and Hell’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] ‘I’d have maybe thought before I started yappin’ my jaws’.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 77: [M]ost crimes are solved because someone yaps.

2. (US) to complain, to nag.

[UK]C.J.C. Hyne Filibusters 6: Only a few newspapers who do not understand, or who are interested in the other party, will yap.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 40/2: Then th’ bloke what owned th’ saloon starts yappin’. ‘Yer ruinin’ me place,’ he says. ‘Shut yer head about yer place,’ we says.
[US]W.M. Raine Cool Customer 126: Then everyone yaps at us because we don’t run down the criminals.
[US]‘Hal Ellson’ Rock 4: ‘I’m not chicken.’ ‘I’d like to see it.’ ‘Then don’t yap. Come along.’.
[US]C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 19: Nerwspapers have been yapping about police brutality.
[US]G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 23: I’m yapping at the kids all the time [...] giving them hell.
[UK]H.R.F. Keating Soft Detective 244: You shouldn’t do that, Belinda. On and on, yap-yap-yap.
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