yap
verb (used without object)
to bark sharply, shrilly, or snappishly; yelp.
yap
1 American
[yap]
/ jæp /
verb (used without object)
-
yaps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
yapped,
past participle, past
-
yapping
present participle
-
to bark sharply, shrilly, or snappishly; yelp.
-
Slang. to talk shrilly, noisily, or foolishly.
verb (used with object)
-
yaps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
yapped,
past participle, past
-
yapping
present participle
noun
-
yaps
plural
-
a sharp, shrill, or snappish bark; yelp.
-
Slang.
-
shrill, noisy, or foolish talk.
-
the mouth.
Keep your yap shut.
-
-
Slang. an uncouth or stupid person; bumpkin; fool.
Yap
2
American
[yahp, yap]
/ jɑp, jæp /
noun
yap
1
British
/ jæp /
verb
-
(of a dog) to bark in quick sharp bursts; yelp
-
informal to talk at length in an annoying or stupid way; jabber
noun
-
a high-pitched or sharp bark; yelp
-
slang annoying or stupid speech; jabber
-
slang a derogatory word for mouth
interjection
Yap
2
British
/ jɑːp, jæp /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
yapsimple
-
yapssimple
-
have yappedperfect
-
has yappedperfect
-
am yappingprogressive
-
are yappingprogressive
-
is yappingprogressive
-
have been yappingperfect progressive
-
has been yappingperfect progressive
Past
-
yappedsimple
-
had yappedperfect
-
was yappingprogressive
-
were yappingprogressive
-
had been yappingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of yap
1595–1605; 1900–05 yap for def. 5b; imitative
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.
See Examples For:
There is a monthly meeting to discuss whichever book the group has chosen and another "scrap and yap" session, which focuses on book journalling and craft.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
One of the gassiest debates in the NBA—and this is a gassy sport, its obsessive followers will yap about it until the ears tumble off your head—concerns what player is the “Face of the Sport.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
At night, hungry coyotes yap and howl beyond the walls of Deborah’s ample, manicured yard.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2025
So, when the birds don't move around or yap in open spaces, that makes things more challenging for the humans.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2024
Skeezie: It’s okay, but If Tonni opens her big yap one more time about the way I eat… Addie: That happens to be the one thing Tonni and I agree on.
From "The Misfits" by James Howe
“However, in our base case we expect the 10-year yield is more likely to fall from here,” Fook Hien Yap, investment strategist, said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
But Yap Lay Sheng, a senior human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, told AFP: "There's no telling how the regime would treat returnees."
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
“You have the power to choose coexistence over extinction,” Tiffany Yap, the center’s urban wildlands science director, told commissioners before the vote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
With earnings risks tilting to the downside, Yap prefers to minimize exposure to the petrochemical sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
Danny thought about what Yap Yap the alpaca had said—his father heard of a guinea pig who lived down here alone.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
There were a few joggers and a couple of people fishing directly from the beach, but it was otherwise peaceful, punctuated only by the dull roar of lapping waves and Tobi’s occasional yaps.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2016
A small boy half-heartedly kicks a deflated plastic ball in and out of the parked cars and a dog, home alone in one of the terraced houses, repeatedly yaps his indignation.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2016
And yet it’s hard to deny the pleasure of watching somebody who yaps and yaps and yaps and then goes right out there and delivers on the yap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 14, 2015
"He is not a guy who yaps all the time, so what he says is usually pretty significant."
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2015
While Tater gushed, all the humans heard was a frantic series of high-pitched yaps.
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
And as I feared last week, the guys in the booth yapped way too much, including talking over a mic’d up Tiger and Phil.
From Golf Digest ● Nov. 27, 2018
In the Madison Square Park dog run, we went unnoticed until a Pomeranian caught sight of us and yapped so rambunctiously that the seal and I took refuge in a nearby Starbucks.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 19, 2018
Both wagged their tails excitedly when someone came to their kennel and yapped sadly when that person walked away.
From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2017
Wall and his nemesis Dennis Schroder also yapped at each other as the teams departed for the locker rooms.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 16, 2017
Kapu yapped to say that the hunters were coming home, and Miyax washed out her pot and went to her lookout to tell them goodnight.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
I’m a part of the problem, too, yapping about this silly kerfuffle six months out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Offstage, he was a doddering, stammering dad shuffling around rooms bustling with yapping tiny dogs urinating everywhere.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2025
Sud creates parallels between Clare in Hollywood and Dorothy in Oz, assigning Clare a Kansan back story, a yapping terrier and a guileless attitude.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
In 2009, a lawyer who lived on Central Park West filed a suit claiming that the intense “whining, barking, yapping and squealing” by her neighbor’s two Chihuahuas was causing agonizing back pain.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 31, 2024
“Stop, no, don’t come any closer! Stand back, children, someone will get hurt—” The old lady’s voice was drowned out by a surge of yapping and barking.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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.
