yelp

• IPA^(key): /jɛlp/

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• Rhymes: -ɛlp

From Middle English ȝelp, yelp, from Old English ġielp (“boasting, arrogance, pride”), from Proto-West Germanic *gelp, from Proto-Germanic *gelpą (“boasting”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to shout”).

yelp (plural yelps)

1. An abrupt, high-pitched noise or utterance.

   The puppy let out a yelp when I stepped on her tail.

2. A type of emergency vehicle siren sounding quicker and more intense than the wail.

From Middle English ȝelpen, yelpen, from Old English ġielpan (“to boast”), from Proto-West Germanic *gelpan, from Proto-Germanic *gelpaną (“to sound off, boast”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel‑ (“to call, shout, scream”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian jalpe, galpe (“to bleep; cheep”), German Low German galpen (“to scream, shriek, howl”), Middle High German gelpfen, gelpfen (“to roar, howl, bark, boast, sing loudly”).

yelp (third-person singular simple present yelps, present participle yelping, simple past and past participle yelped)

1. To utter an abrupt, high-pitched noise.

   The children yelped with delight as they played in the cold water.

   • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter VI, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 38:

     I followed it as well as I could, I who have so often boasted of my memory now sniffing along for what seemed a league at least like a brachet and ready almost to yelp for joy at the thought of a place I knew, after so much emptiness, silence, and blackness.

• Pyle

yelp

1. Alternative form of ȝelp