a slang word for an American
informal short for Yankee
First recorded in 1810–20; origin uncertain
An Americanism dating back to 1770–80; shortened form
To yank is to pull or move suddenly and sharply. You might reach for a pan on the stove and then yank your hand away when you realize the handle is hot. Your little sister might yank at your arm to get your attention, while a bully might yank your hair just to be mean. In both cases, they're tugging abruptly, and you can call the pull itself a yank. Don't confuse this noun with the yank that serves as a slightly offensive nickname for Americans, or even more specifically, for New Englanders. Dutch settlers in then New Amsterdam first used this word to insult English colonists in Connecticut.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Griffin, for his part, responded by threatening to yank Citadel from the Park Avenue development project.
From Barron's • May 5, 2026
Every plot detail feels like a balloon drifting ever so slowly into the air, waiting for a character to grab the string and yank the story balloon back down to reiterate it.
From Salon • Jan. 25, 2026
They yank open industrial-grade zippers, unleashing a gust of helium, and dive chest-first onto the collapsing character.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025
"You should try to reform before you yank your way out because inevitably there could be cost to doing so," he argues.
From BBC • Oct. 8, 2025
I yank my arm from the coward, and he doesn’t fight me.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
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.
