Also yap-yap. [Echoic. Cf. YAWP.]
1. intr. To bark sharply, as a small dog; to yelp.
1668. [see yapping vbl. sb.].
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia.
1843. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., I. i. 5. Up come the hounds…. Yelping, yapping, puffing, and blowing.
1865. Anne Manning, Belforest, II. 100. A little dog that … yap-yapped at every visitor.
1901. Meredith, Poems, Forest Hist., xvii. Where long forlorn the lone dog whines and yaps.
2. transf. To speak snappishly.
1864. ’Annie Thomas,’ D. Donne, III. 204. Dora was not one of the women who yap and scream in wrath or excitement.
1893. Kipling, Many Intent., 130. Ortheris yapped indignantly.
Hence Yapping vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Yapper, a dog or person that yaps.
1823. New Monthly Mag., VIII. 499. Some dozen *yappers and yellers of all shapes and breeds.
1901. Mrs. E. M. Whishaw, in Longm. Mag., May, 46. His enemies said ‘Job wer’ a proper yapper.’
1668. R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 243. A Voice not unlike the *yapping of a foysting Cur.
1891. Conan Doyle, White Company ix. The shrill yapping of the hounds.
1894. Sat. Rev., 3 March, 214. There was some rather feeble yap-yapping at the Peers.
1865. Anne Manning, Belforest, I. 265. Every little *yap-yapping dog.
1868. Miss Braddon, Dead-sea Fruit, xxv. Half a dozen little yapping dogs … assailed me.
