yap

Etymology

Probably of imitative origin. Alternatively, from dialectal yap, yaup, yalp (“to yap, yelp”), from Middle English ȝælpen, variant of yelpen (“to yelp”). More at yelp.

noun

1. (countable) The high-pitched bark of a small dog, or similar.
2. (uncountable, slang) Casual talk; chatter.
   Had I taken his accusations seriously I might have recommended a change in my under-managership, but I never could translate our jammy products into gas or explosives or even poison. Still yap, at least as concerned Beldite's. 1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 59
   They couldn’t rise above their calls for peace. Those who weren’t “defenders of the fatherland” were incapable of anything except yap and blather about “stopping the war.” 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 190
3. (countable, slang, derogatory) The mouth, which produces speech.
   Shut your yap!
4. (countable, Tyneside) A badly behaved child; a brat.

verb

1. (intransitive) Of a small dog, to bark.
2. (intransitive, slang) To talk, especially excessively; to chatter.
   You’re always yapping, I wish you’d shut up.
3. (transitive, slang) To rob or steal from (someone).
   Ante up! Yap that fool! 2000, M.O.P., Ante Up