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
Stranded Thomas "Red" Moran is young, anemic and a hardboiled yegg.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the yegg is just a softie under his shell.
From Time Magazine Archive
Except for a series of cartoons, showing Tammany as a little yegg in a tiger-striped sweater, Mr. Hearst subsequently published nothing very damaging to the Brown Derby.
From Time Magazine Archive
"You're a third rate yegg," says I, "and you've been nipped tryin' to pinch a rubber door mat."
From Side-stepping with Shorty by Ford, Sewell
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.
