yack

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jæk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: yak

Noun

yack (plural yacks)

1. Alternative form of yak (“chatter; talk”)

Verb

yack (third-person singular simple present yacks, present participle yacking, simple past and past participle yacked)

1. Alternative form of yak (“talk; vomit”)

   I moved to another carriage on the train because the first one was full of people yacking on mobile phones.

   • 2024 March 2, John Gapper, “Planet Wirth”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 2:

     “If we do a deal, no one ever hears about it. Others yack but Iwan never does. It is very Swiss.”

Derived terms

• yack on

 

Etymology 2

Dialectal form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jak/

Noun

yack (plural yacks)

1. (England, dialectal, possibly obsolete) An oak.
   • 1877, Gibson, Leg. and Notes 50:

     If 't ash tree buds before 't yack, […]

   • 1878, John Castillo, Poems in the North Yorkshire Dialect, section 25:

     Awd stiff yack nut eeasy bended, […]

Etymology 3

Noun

yack (plural yacks)

1. (UK, thieves slang, obsolete) A watch (timepiece).
   • 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 498:

     I have got the Yacks, so do not come it. Fight cocum.

   • 1863, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of the Court of London, volume 3, page 86:

     […] and away I scampered with the tiddlywink-table, while Teddy Limber […] frisked the yokel of his yack and skin.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• YKCA, caky, cyka

French

Alternative forms

• yak

Etymology

Borrowed from Tibetan གཡག (g.yag), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-jak ~ g-jaŋ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jak/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

yack m (plural yacks)

1. yak (ox-like mammal)

Further reading

• “yack”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.