yap meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

yap

noun

/jæp/

Etymology Probably of imitative origin. Alternatively, from dialectal yap, yaup, yalp (“to yap, yelp”). More at yelp.

The high-pitched bark of a small dog, or similar.

Slang Casual talk; chatter.

Had I taken his accusations seriously I might have recommended a change in my under-managership, but I never could translate our jammy products into gas or explosives or even poison. Still yap, at least as concerned Beldite's.1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 59:
They couldn’t rise above their calls for peace. Those who weren’t “defenders of the fatherland” were incapable of anything except yap and blather about “stopping the war.”1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 190:

Derogatory, Slang The mouth, which produces speech.

Geordie A badly behaved person, especially a child.

verb

Etymology Probably of imitative origin. Alternatively, from dialectal yap, yaup, yalp (“to yap, yelp”). More at yelp.

Of a small dog, to bark.

Slang To talk, especially excessively; to chatter.

Slang To rob or steal from (someone).

Derived terms: yapaholic, Yapanese, yappatron, yapper, yappily, yappuccino, yappy