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.
Some groups recall the past, like trumpeter Yank Lawson’s New Orleans-style orchestra, while others, like Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and especially Boyd Raeburn, anticipate modern jazz.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 26, 2026
Dark money, in the Yank sense of that term, plays virtually no role in European electoral campaigns, which tend to be tightly controlled, brief in duration and mostly financed by the state.
From Salon • Jan. 25, 2025
To play a swaggering Yank like Bucky Egan for “Masters” required countless hours with a dialect coach and maintaining his accent through most of the shoot.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2024
The company plans a partnership with Yank Marine, a women-owned business in New Jersey, to manufacture a support vessel to deploy, dispatch, and collect technicians for operations and maintenance activities.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 4, 2023
“Doing something should help,” yelled the Yank from the back, enjoying the view ahead of him for different reasons than the rest of them.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
