Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A smart blow.
  • noun A great falsehood; a plumper.
  • noun Same as yankie, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who yanks, or gives a sudden hard pull
  • noun Scotland A brazen lie

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who gives a strong sudden pull

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

yank +‎ -er

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word yanker.

Examples

  • Who, I take it, is channeled in the final scenes of I Am Sam, as Sean Penn revives a speech from my very favorite 1970s DH tear-yanker, Kramer vs. Kramer.

    Melissa Kirsch: When the Soundtrack is Better Than the Movie 2008

  • While Rove and Limbaugh, the diaxis of evil, have their old crank-yanker with the dicey health records hooked up to adrenalized life-support, they have their v-p candidate hooked up to the info-injection machine.

    Kate Clinton: I Can See Manchuria 2008

  • Extraordinarily interesting thread--Thanks to integrity for disclosing he is simply a bomb thrower, chain yanker and disrupter of the peace.

    Look at the movement on Gallup's "strong and decisive leader" graph. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Last night some yanker used my name on a thread, so I had to file a complaint with Judd about it.

    Think Progress » McCain: Bush Escalation Is Too Small 2007

  • A male friend cut his hair & shaved off his beard for the first time in a decade when it became too much trouble with the little yanker.

    Monday baby blogging: Daddy is the best mattress 2006

  • Charles Krauthammer, chain-yanker: Most of our pundits enjoy the moral advantage of not being smart enough to realize when they are misleading the public.

    Archive 2005-11-20 Steve Sailer 2005

  • Charles Krauthammer, chain-yanker: Most of our pundits enjoy the moral advantage of not being smart enough to realize when they are misleading the public.

    Charles Krauthammer, chain-yanker Steve Sailer 2005

  • Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog: Charles Krauthammer, chain-yanker skip to main

    Charles Krauthammer, chain-yanker Steve Sailer 2005

  • And again, all this time -- a very short time, considering the changes it made in everybody concerned -- Ferriday was Kedzie's alternate hope and despair, good angel and bad, uplifter and down-yanker.

    We Can't Have Everything Rupert Hughes 1914

  • I'm sure he gets this a lot, and I know I'm not the only person who thought this, but I just imagined the grown-up Cameron from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' wielding that tooth yanker as his angst-ridden Excalibur, extracting (no pun intended) his revenge on the evils of the world.

    TV Squad Danny Gallagher 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.