yegg
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of yegg
First recorded in 1925–30, of obscure origin; the proposals that the word is from German Jäger “hunter” or that it is the surname of a well-known safecracker are both very dubious
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sometimes, though, past and present combinations commingle in the mind, leaving men to huddle in the cold like hapless burglars while waiting for the frozen-fingered deciphering of the head yegg.
From New York Times • May 22, 2012
A masterpiece of bamboozlement, Catch Me is a kind of catch-22 between rival and riven U.S. agencies, written in a style that ranges from hardest-boiled yegg to souffl�, with nothing poached.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the yegg is just a softie under his shell.
From Time Magazine Archive
There the discarded lemon can be stuffed with colorful yegg and luscious tomato, wrapped in the right sort of cabbage, and served to the public as something called a rehash.
From Time Magazine Archive
An American yegg would have laughed at it, opened 73 it as easily as a ripe peach; but in this district it was absolute security.
From The Pagan Madonna by Koerner, W. H. D. (William Henry Dethlef)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
