[Echoic. Cf. YAWP.]
1. A dog that yaps; a yelping cur. Now dial.
1603. Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., i. 4. Those bawling yappes, that barke rather of fashion, then fiercenes.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, cclxxxiv. 248. ’Tis a Common Thing upon the Passing of a Strange Dog through a Town, to have a Hundred Curs Bawling at his Breech, and Every Yap gets a Snap at him.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia.
2. A sound expressible by the syllable ‘yap’; a short sharp bark or cry.
1826. Lamb, Ess., Pop. Fallacies, xiii. But yap, yay, yap!—what is this confounded cur?
1864. Daily Tel., 8 Oct., 3/5. A small dog,… giving a quick series of sharp low barks, or yaps, till he finds an elk.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 258. A weasel rushes past…. He utters a strange startled ‘yap.’
1901. P. Vaux, in Pall Mall Mag., July, 328. The sub. gave a little yap of joy.
