Obs. exc. Sc. and dial. Forms: 5, 8 yamer, 6 jammer, -ar, ȝalmer, 7 yalmer, -ur, 8 yommer, 8–9 yaumer, 9 yaummer, yawmer, yammar, 6, 9 yammer. [Alteration of ME. ȝomer, YOMER, after MDu., MLG. jammeren.]
1. intr. To lament, mourn; to utter cries of lamentation or distress, to wail; to whine, whimper.
[c. 1400. Anturs Arth., ix. Hit ȝaulut, hit ȝamurt, lyke a woman.]
1481. Caxton, Reynard xix. (Arb.), 47. He … fayned as he had wepte, right as he hadde yamerde in his herte.
1603. Proph. of Waldhaue (Bannatyne), 29. Thou shalt yalmur and yell: that al York shal it heare.
1818. Miss Ferrier, Marriage, xviii. It [sc. the child] does yammer constantly.
1820. Scott, Monast., iv. The White Maiden of Avenel … is aye seen to yammer and wail before ony o’ that family dies.
1861. Wauch, Birtle Carter’s Tale, 27. To see poor wortchin folk’s little bits o’ childher yammerin’ for a bite o’ meight—when there’s noan for ’em.
b. To murmur, complain, grumble; also trans. to say in a complaining or querulous tone.
1786. Har’st Rig, cii. They ever and anon stand still, And yamour sair; ‘We’re sure we do our day fulfil, And meikle mair.’
c. 1826. Hogg, in J. Wilson’s Noctes Ambr. (1855), I. 224. There’s some souls ’ll yammer and cheep If a win’le-strae lie in their way.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, Tomlinson, 77.
| Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, ‘Let me in— | |
| For I mind that I borrowed my neighbour’s wife to sin the deadly sin.’ |
1894. Crockett, Mad Sir Uchtred, ix. ‘They chase us, Belus,’ he yammered.
2. To make a loud unpleasant noise or outcry; to howl, yell; to roar, shout.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. i. 38. Greit figuris of wolfis … Ȝouland and ȝammerand grislie for to heyr.
c. 1550. Clariodus, I. 738 (Maitland), 24. The cairfull echo ȝalmering to the sky.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 123. Hoy, hurson, to hell,… Where deuils in their den dois ȝammar and ȝell.
1603. Proph. of Waldhaue (Bannatyne), 27. He yelped, he yalmered, and youled loude.
1828. Craven Gloss.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xx. Like fiends yammering and girning when Hell wins a soul.
3. To long, yearn, crave.
1705. [see below].
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), View Lanc. Dial., Wks. (1775), 51. Boh I yammer t’hear heaw things turn’d eawt.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxiii. When a’ thae things are yammerin’ to get haud o’ ye.
Hence Yammering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. 240. Terribil spraichis of yammering pepill in the deidthraw.
1705. J. Dunton, Life & Errors, 247. Mr. Ames … had always some Yammerings upon him after Learning and the Muses.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, IV. 191. A sucking weanie … to its yamering fa’s again.
1807. Stagg, Poems, 21. Our wee yen’s yammerin’ noise.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XI. 486. Suppressed, discontented, yawmering … whiggism.
1870. Miss Broughton, Red as Rose, viii. The yammering of the baby.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxiii. ‘Na, na,’ he cried, in the strange yammering speech of the creature.
