yap v.1
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.
Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 196: A man with a snarling manner, or replete testy replies — yappeth. | ||
Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 253: What are ye all yapping for? I am not deaf. | ||
Felix Holt II I 143: Moro yapped in a puppy voice at their heels. | ||
Dagonet Ditties 101: My fingers I can snap / At the Opposition folly, / And the Parnellites who yap. | ‘The New Cure’||
Tramping with Tramps 384: ‘I’m starvin’, father,’ I yapped. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Nov. 4/7: To stand up there in Parliament / And yap / And yap / And yap. | ||
N.Z. Observer 6 June 4/1: He asked no e‘what are you yapping at?’. | ||
Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 23: I’m yappin’ to me cobber uv me mash . . . / I’ve done me dash! | ‘The Intro’ in||
Sport (Adelaide) 15 Jan. 5/1: One or two of the yappers have been keeping fairly quiet lately. | ||
Union Jack 5 May 17: Well, what of it you yapping coward? | ||
Main Street (1921) 420: Next thing, I suppose you’ll be yapping about free speech. Free speech! | ||
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. | ||
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. | ‘Hash’ in||
Really the Blues 157: I kept yapping at them every time they drifted off [...] from the pure style. | ||
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! | ||
Last Exit to Brooklyn 88: Of course the kid started yappin but they took care of it. | ||
Family Arsenal 202: I thought she had more sense than to go yapping about her sordid past. | ||
Complete Barry McKenzie 11: Reckon I’m yappin’ to meself again. | ||
Rivethead (1992) 141: The sounds of my co-workers yapping it up and tossing ’em down. | ||
Guardian Saturday Rev. 12 June 9: She can also yap away merrily about primitive condoms. | ||
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.’. | ||
Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] ‘I’d have maybe thought before I started yappin’ my jaws’. | ‘Trespassing betwen Heaven and Hell’ in||
Broken 77: [M]ost crimes are solved because someone yaps. | ‘Crime 101’ in
2. (US) to complain, to nag.
Filibusters 6: Only a few newspapers who do not understand, or who are interested in the other party, will yap. | ||
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. | ||
Cool Customer 126: Then everyone yaps at us because we don’t run down the criminals. | ||
Rock 4: ‘I’m not chicken.’ ‘I’d like to see it.’ ‘Then don’t yap. Come along.’. | ||
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 19: Nerwspapers have been yapping about police brutality. | ||
Cogan’s Trade (1975) 23: I’m yapping at the kids all the time [...] giving them hell. | ||
Soft Detective 244: You shouldn’t do that, Belinda. On and on, yap-yap-yap. | ||
Slanguage. |
3. (Aus.) to tell, to recount.
‘A “Push” Story’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 17/1: ‘’N’ what drove th’ demons t’ muck up th’ college?’ ‘Well, it takes some constant chat, Squezzer ; but I’m fit t’ yap it, all in. Th’ school wuz in ’n’ goin’ gay’. |