yap
/jap
/verb (yaps, yapping, yapped) [no object]
1Give a sharp, shrill bark: the dachshunds yapped at his heels...
- She could hear Avalanche begin to yap at the door and Valentine started to bark as well.
- She had her arms wrapped around his neck and Iggy yapping at her heels as he paced about.
- A Dachshund yapped behind a wrought iron gate in the courtyard I traversed.
Synonyms
yelp, bark, woof, bay
1.1 informal Talk at length in an irritating manner: he sat in a coffee shop yapping with his buddies...
- Then I started yapping to someone else about Kraftwerk, when I realised that the lights were dimming and it was time for Sparks to commence their second set of the night.
- We were up late last night drinking and yapping.
- Nell walked over to a group of guys so I was stuck listening to Curley Sue yap away.
Synonyms
chatter, prattle, prate, gibber, babble, blather, blether, blither, gabble, gossip, rattle, ramble, maunder;
go on, run on, talk at length, talk incessantly, talk a lot;
British talk nineteen to the dozen;
Scottish & Irish slabber on
informal jabber, blabber, yatter, jaw, gab, gas, chit-chat, yackety-yak
British informal rabbit, witter, waffle, natter, chunter, talk the hind legs off a donkey
North American informal run off at the mouth
Australian/New Zealand informal mag
archaic twaddle, twattle, claver, clack
noun
1A sharp, shrill bark: frenzied yaps of delight...
- And there is no chorus of dogs, locked in yards alone, whose barks and yaps and howls, at most other times of the year, bounce from ridge to ridge, amplified by winds.
- All night the same cycle, a low deep bark and then the yap of the chihuahua.
- To further obfuscate matters, he hiccups, barks, yaps, and swallows his rhymes.
Synonyms
yelp, bark, woof
2North American informal A person’s mouth: he should keep his yap shut...
- Don't apologize for telling a player to shut their yap when they talk at the wrong time!
- The result is that Cassius Broaster sits in a federal jail cell with little to do but keep his big yap shut.
- All I needed them to do was help me get $223 worth of beer and keep their yaps shut about it.
2.1 [mass noun] Loud, irritating talk: she’ll give you a lot of yap...
- My first taste of the Fringe Festival came in the form of Baba Brinkman's chattering yap.
- If they can't see that it's the lack of political yap yap that has done it for the Tories then there really is no hope.
Derivatives
yapper
- The dog that's in the house was known to be a yapper and did not make any noise.
- I served to protect your free speech, so shut your yapper and don't write things I don't like to read!
- It is one thing to try to ignore Rush and Fox, pretend they are yappers and you are the ‘real’ media.
Origin
Early 17th century (denoting a dog that yaps): imitative.