yo-yo
[yoh-yoh]
- a spoollike toy consisting of two thick wooden, plastic, or metal disks connected by a dowel pin in the center to which a string is attached, one end being looped around the player's finger so that the toy can be spun out and reeled in by wrist motion.
- something that fluctuates or moves up and down, especially suddenly or repeatedly.
- Slang. a stupid, foolish, or incompetent person.
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- Informal. moving up and down or back and forth; fluctuating; vacillating: yo-yo prices; a yo-yo foreign policy.
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- Informal. to move up and down or back and forth; fluctuate or vacillate: Mortgage rates are still yo-yoing.
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- Informal. to cause to yo-yo.
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Origin of yo-yo
earlier, a U.S. trademark for such a toy (1932); recorded in 1915 as the name of a Philippine toy; of undetermined orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
impulsiveunpredictablevolatileeffervescentchangeableresilienterraticficklefluctuatingwhimsicalwaywardquirkyunreasonablehelter-skelterunstablecarelessarbitraryflightytemperamentalcapriciousExamples from the Web for yo-yo
Contemporary Examples
There were these Japanese yo-yo experts who used to do exhibitions at the Woolworth.
Oh, for the good old days when Roy Acuff taught Richard Nixon how to use a yo-yo on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.
“The yo-yo effect of them coming home and leaving again is detrimental to families,” she says.
Yo-Yo had never heard of Ji Cang or any of the ancestors whose lives are chronicled in the genealogy.
What Yo-Yo Ma didn't know until recently was that the story of his name is actually much more complex, dating back 255 years.
Historical Examples
The ships that raided them were the Enterprise and the Yo-Yo.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
Then the Yo-Yo blew up, very quietly, as things do where there is no air to carry shock-and sound-waves, but very brilliantly.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
That's pretty hard to keep track of, because I was like a yo-yo, back and forth from one parent to the other.
Warren Commission (8 of 26): Hearings Vol. VIII (of 15)The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
yo-yo
- a toy consisting of a spool attached to a string, the end of which is held while it is repeatedly spun out and reeled in
- US and Canadian slang a stupid person, esp one who is easily manipulated
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- informal to change repeatedly from one position to another; fluctuate
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- informal changing repeatedly; fluctuating
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Word Origin
from Filipino yo yo, come come, a weapon consisting of a spindle attached to a thong
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for yo-yo
n.
1915, apparently from a language of the Philippines. Registered as a trademark in Vancouver, Canada, in 1932, the year the first craze for them began (subsequent fads 1950s, 1970s, 1998). The toy itself is much older and was earlier known as bandalore (1824). Figurative sense of any "up-and-down movement" is first recorded 1932. Meaning "stupid person" is recorded from 1970. The verb in the figurative sense is attested from 1967.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper