yaffle, yaffil, yaffingale, yaffiler

[For etym. see def. and extract.] Ornith.: Provincial names for Gecinus virid is , the Green Woodpecker, from its ordinary cry, which is IMG:content-1081.jpg:[blocks in formation] yields excellent butter; the flesh is of the finest quality, and that of the calves far superior to ordinary veal. The hair is spun into ropes, and made into coverings for tents, and the soft fur of the hump and withers is woven into a fine strong cloth. The tails, often died red, are made into the chowries, or fly-flappers, used in India. Yaks are often seen in zoological gardens and menageries, and have repeatedly bred in Europe, and it is probable that they might be advantageously introduced into the Highlands of Scotland and the northern parts of the Continents of America and Europe. yak-lace, s. A coarse strong lace made from the hair of the Yak (q. v.). IMG:content-1082.png:[blocks in formation] Botany : 1. The root of various species of Dioscorea, of which more than 150 are known, also the plants them selves. They are herbs or undershrubs with fleshy tuberous roots, stems twining to the left hand; leaves generally alternate, always entire, and with several strongly marked veins running throughout their entire length. Infiorescence consisting of spikes of small unisexual flowers, with a perianth inclosing in the males six stamens and in the female a three-celled ovary. They are chiefly natives of America and of Asia, but a few are African, and three or four Australian. The Common Yam, Dios core a sativa , is a native of Malabar, Java, and the Philippines; D. alata of the Moluccas and Java; Yam. D. globosa , D. purpure a , D. rubella . D. fasciculata of India; D. batatas of China and Japan; but most of these are now introduced into tropical countries to which they are not indigenous. The largest of the esculent roots of the several species of yam are two or three feet acro , occasionally reaching thirty pounds weight. They are used as substitutes for potatoes in the regions where they grow. They are eaten either roasted or boiled, and the flower also is made into bread and puddings. 2. ( Pl .): The order Dioscoreacee. ( Lindley .) yăm-a-dôu, s. (Guianan name.] Bot .: An oil expre ed from the seeds of Myris tic a sebifera , a tree about ten feet high, growing in Guiana. yăm-er, yăm-mēr, yam-our, yom-er, v . i . [A. S. geómeri an =to lament, from geómer (O. L. Ger. jámar , O. H. Ger. jamarer )=lamentable; O. H. Ger. jámaron =to lament; Ger. jammeren .] To lament, to fret, to cry, to yell, to whine. ( Scotch or Provincial .) "The child... does yammer constantly, that can't be denied."-Mi Ferrier: Marriage , ch. xix. *yane, v . i. [YAWN, v.] yǎnk (1), s. [YANK, v.] 1. A jerk, a twitch. ( Slang .) 2. A quick, sharp stroke or blow. ( Scotch .) 3. ( Pl .): A kind of leggings. ( Prov .) yǎnk (2), s . An abbreviation of Yankee (q. v.). yǎnk, v . t . & i . [Etym. doubtful; perhaps a nasalized form akin to Ger.jagen to hunt.] [YACHT.] A. Transitive : 1. To twitch or jerk powerfully. ( Slang.) 2. To snatch away unexpectedly. ( Slang.) B. Intransitive: 1. To work cleverly and actively. Often with on ; as, She yanked on at the work. some have profe ed to trace it to the time of the Great Rebellion, and have a erted that "Nankee Doodle" was a nickname for Cromwell, and that the rhyme "Nankee Doodle came to town, on a little pony, He stuck a feather in his cap, and called him macaroni," referred to his entry into Oxford. The term " macaroni" sufficiently confutes the theory, for the Macaroni Club did not come into existence till the middle of the eighteenth century. In all probability the tune is of English origin, and not more than a hun dred and fifty years old. The first mention of it in print is said to occur in the Boston Journal of the Times for September, 1768: "Those pa ing in boats observed great rejoicings, and that the Yankee Doodle song was the capital piece in the band of music." The words, probably composed by Dr. Schuckburg, who served under General Amherst, in the French and Indian war of 1755, are now never heard. According to Mr. Barclay Squire, " as a melody it has little beyond simplicity in its favor, but there is a quaint, direct, and incisive character about it which redeems it from vulgarity, besides which the historical a ociations of the tune, connected as it is with the establishment of American Independence, should have saved it from some of the criticisms to which it has been subjected." ( Grove : Dict . Music ). 2. A Yankee. Yankee-doodle dom, s . A term applied by the citizens of the Southern States to New England. Yankee-gang, s. An arrangement in a saw-mill adapted for logs of 21 inches diameter and under. It consists of two sets of gang-saws, having parallel ways in the immediate vicinity of each other. One is the slabbing-gang, and reduces the log to a balk and slab-boards. The balk is then shifted to the stock-gang, which rips it into lumber. Like a Yankee; after the Yankee fashion. Yăn-kee-fied, adj . [Eng. Yankee; -fy, ed.] "The Colonel whittled away at a bit of stick in the most Yankee fled way po ible."- A Stray Yankee in Texas , p. 113. ( Bartlett .) Yăn-keě-Işm, s. [English Yankee; -ism.] An idiom or practice of the Yankees. "Approaching very fast the sublime of yankeeism ." Thomas Moore: Diary, vii. 231. yǎn-ker, yăn'-kie, s. [YANK, v.] 1. A sharp, clever, forward woman. 2. An agile girl; an ince ant speaker. 3. A smart stroke. 4. A great falsehood. Scotch in all senses. *yǎn-ky, 8. [YANKEE.] Naut .: Some species of ship. "Yawing like a Dutch yanky ." -Smollett : Sir L. Greaves, ch. iii. yăn-o-lite, s. [Gr. ion=a violet, and lithos =a stone; Ger. yanolithe.] Min.: The same as AXINITE (q. v.). To nag. Yăn-keě, s . & a. [A word of doubtful origin. According to Mr. Heckewelder ( Indian Nations , p. 112, quoted in Bartlett : Dict. of American isms , s. v.), the word was the first effort of the Indians "to imitate the sound of the national name of the English, which they pronounced Yengees." Асcording to Dr. W. Gordon ( Hist . Amer . War , 1789, i. 324-5, quoted by Skeat), it was a favorite cant word in Cambridge, Ma ., as early as 1713, and meant "excellent," as a yankee good horse, yankee good rider, . He supposes that it was adopted by the students there as a by-word, and, being carried by them from the college, obtained currency in the New England colonies, until at length it was taken up in other parts of the country, and applied to New England ers generally as a term of slight reproach. Skeat, with reference to this account of the origin of the word, compares Lowland Scotch yankie a sharp, clever, forward woman; yanker = an agile girl, an ince ant talker, also a smart stroke, a great falsehood, the fundamental idea being that of quick motion. [YACHT, s., YANK (1), s.] A. As substantive : 1. The popular name for the citizens of New England, but applied by foreigners to all the inhabitants of the United States. During the American Revolution it was applied to all the insurgents, and during the Civil War it was the term commonly applied by the Confederate soldiers to the Federals. 2. A gla of whisky sweetened with mola es. B. As adj .: Of or pertaining to the Yankees, or Americans. Yankee-doodle, s . 1. The name given to a famous air, now regarded as one of the national airs of the United States. yard (1), *yarde (1) *yerd (1), *yerde (1), suost . [A. S. gyrd , gierd =a stick, a rod; cogn. with Dutch garde = a twig, a rod; Ger. gerte = a rod, a switch; O. H. Ger. gert a , kerta = a rod, gart = a goad; Icel. gaddr=a goad, spike, sting: A. S. gád a goad; Goth, gazds =a goad, prick, sting.] [GAD, GOAD.] I. Ordinary Language : *1. A rod, a stick. ( Chaucer : C. T. , 149.) *2. A long piece of timber, as a rafter or the like. 3. A pole or rod for measuring a yard; a yardstick or yard-measure. 4. The British and American standard of measure, being equal to three feet or thirty-six inches. [MEASURE, S., 1.; FOOT.] As a cloth measure the yard is divided into four quarters=sixteen nails. A square yard contains nine square feet, and a cubic yard twenty-seven cubic feet. A yard=91-4392 centimeters, a square yard=8361.13 square centimeters, and a cubic yard=764,535 cubic centimeters. "For if I measure anything by a yard , I know whether the thing I measure be longer or shorter than that supposed yard , though perhaps the yard I measure by be not exactly the standard."-Locke: On Hum . Underst ., bk. ii.. ch. xxviii. 5. The male organ of generation, the penis. II. Naut .: A spar slung from a mast and serving to extend a sail. Yards are either square, lateen, or lug-sail. Yards for square sails are suspended acro the mast at right angles, and are of a cylindrical form, tapering from the middle, which is termed the slings, toward the extremities, which are called the yard-arms. * Under one's yard : In one's power; subject to one's authority or power. "Hoste, quod he, I am under your yerde." IMG:content-1083.jpg:[graphic] yard-arm, s. Chaucer. C. T. , 7,898. IMG:content-1084.png:[blocks in formation] *yard-land, s. A measure or quantity of land varying in different countries from fifteen to forty acres; a virgate. yard-man, yard-master, s . A railroad official, who has the superintendence of the tracks or yards on which trains are made up, switched, .