Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A native or inhabitant of New England, especially one of English descent.
- noun A native or inhabitant of a northern US state, especially a Union soldier during the Civil War.
- noun A native or inhabitant of the United States.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Spanking; excellent. Also used adverbially.
- noun A name for various special tools in various industries, usually given because of their American origin or because they have proved handy and ingenious; specifically, a molders' lifting-tool with the shank curved to admit it to places difficult of access.
- noun A citizen of New England.
- noun By extension, a native of the United States.
- noun A soldier of the Federal armies: so called by the Confederates during the war of secession. See
Yank . - noun A glass of whisky sweetened with molasses.
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Yankees: as, Yankee smartness or invention; Yankee notions.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A nickname for a native or citizen of New England, especially one descended from old New England stock; by extension, an inhabitant of the Northern States as distinguished from a Southerner; also, applied sometimes by foreigners to any inhabitant of the United States.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees.
- adjective (Bot.) See Japan clover, under
Japan .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The letter
Y in theICAO spelling alphabet . - noun A native or inhabitant of
New England . - noun A native or inhabitant of the Northern
USA . (used in this sense especially by inhabitants of the Southern USA) - noun A native or inhabitant of the
USA . (used in this sense especially outside of the USA) - noun nautical A large triangular
headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on thefore topmast stay . Unlike agenoa it does not fill the whole fore triangle, but is set in combination with the workingstaysail . - noun baseball A player that plays for the New York Yankees.
- noun A
wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfoldaccumulator . A minimum two selections must win to gain a return. - verb dated, slang, US, Canada to
cheat , trick orswindle somebody; tomisrepresent something
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War)
- noun an American who lives in New England
- noun an American (especially to non-Americans)
- adjective used by Southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I always heard that the term Yankee was derived from a common ducth surname and that it became a slang term for referring to dutch settlers in new york and connecticut.
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Even before the American Revolutionary War, the term Yankee was used by the British to refer, derisively, to the American colonists.
Yankee 2002
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The term Yankee comes from the tribe of Indians styled Yonkoo.
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The term Yankee comes from the tribe of Indians styled Yonkoo — when the English conquered them after a long and bloody contest; when blood had flown in crimson currents, and the shrieks of many an innocent and massacred female rent the air, and the red man's tomahawk was wreaking in the blood of its victim.
A Thrilling Sketch of the Life of the Distinguished Chief Okah Tubbee Alias, Wm. Chubbee, Son of the Head Chief, Mosholeh Tubbee, of the Choctaw Nation of Indians Lewis Leonidas 1848
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The fact the term Yankee became a term for northerner-and ultimately for citizens of the US as a whole is perhaps the surest proof of this.
Westminster Wisdom 2009
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In America we still accept the term Yankee only for us who live or were born in a northern state.
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In fact, there's a sort of telescoping quality to the term Yankee that this publication has been celebrating since its inception in 1935.
unknown title 2009
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In America we still accept the term Yankee only for us who live or were born in a northern state.
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You've just got to remember that I'm what you call a Yankee girl.
The Grand Babylon Hotel Arnold Bennett 1899
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He will, perhaps, be longest known to posterity for that remarkable series of papers written in what he called the Yankee dialect and designed at first to stop the extension of slavery and afterwards to suppress it.
History of American Literature Reuben Post Halleck 1897
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