yammer

American  

[yam-er] / ˈyæm ər /

verb (used without object)

1. to whine or complain.

2. to make an outcry or clamor.

3. to talk loudly and persistently.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to utter clamorously, persistently, or in complaint.

   They yammered their complaints until she let them see the movie.

noun

1. the act or noise of yammering.

yammer British  

/ ˈjæmə /

verb

1. to utter or whine in a complaining or peevish manner

2. to make (a complaint) loudly or persistently

3. (intr) (esp of an animal) to howl or wail plaintively or distressingly; yelp or yowl

---

noun

1. a yammering sound, wail, or utterance

2. nonsense; jabber

Other Word Forms

• yammerer
  noun
• yammeringly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of yammer

1275–1325; Middle English yameren (v.) < Middle Dutch jam(m ) eren, replacing Middle English yomeren, Old English gēomrian to complain, derivative of gēomor sad; akin to German Jammer lamentation

Explanation

To yammer is to make a loud, howling sound, or to talk on and on about nothing much at all. When cats yammer outside your window all night long, it's hard to fall asleep. You might complain about the way your neighbors yammer loudly in their yard early in the morning, or about the fact that your brothers yammer and fight all through dinner. Whether a person, an animal, or an inanimate object like a motorcycle yammers, it makes a pretty annoying sound. In the fifteenth century, yammer meant "to lament," from the Old English root geomor, "sorrowful."

Example Sentences

While the menacing defense has truly been the star of the first month of the season for this franchise, that’s not nearly as fun to yammer on about.

From Washington Post • Oct. 8, 2022

Wake likes to yammer, but the men aren’t ready conversationalists.

From New York Times • Oct. 16, 2019

I’ve listened to philosophers yammer ad nauseam about Kripke’s magnum opus, Naming and Necessity, and I sat in on a seminar with him in 2016.

From Scientific American • Mar. 23, 2019

As he drives a car, the adult Fox rides shotgun, filming him, letting him yammer on about the power of a child’s love.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 18, 2018

The twentieth century held some surprises for us all: the flicker of the motion pictures, the yammer of the radio, the mounting rumble of foreign wars, the jangle of change.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck