Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The green woodpecker, Gecinus viridis: from its loud laughing notes. Also yaffil, yaffler, yaffingale. See cut under popinjay.
  • noun An armful.
  • noun A pile of codfish to be carried from the flakes to the storehouse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The European green woodpecker (Picus viridis syn. Genius viridis). It is noted for its loud laughlike note. Called also eccle, hewhole, highhoe, laughing bird, popinjay, rain bird, yaffil, yaffler, yaffingale, yappingale, yackel, and woodhack.

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

  • noun UK the European green woodpecker, Picus viridis

Etymologies

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Examples

  • If a corpse be kept over a Sunday another death will occur before the week is out; should a big bumble-bee enter the window, a guest may be expected; and when the woodpecker, commonly called the yaffle, laughs, they say the rain is coming.

    English Villages 1892

  • I might start using it in my ESL classes so that a new generation of Koreans will know the proper English terminology for an 'armful of something' is a 'yaffle'.

    Archive 2009-05-01 gregarious monk 2009

  • I might start using it in my ESL classes so that a new generation of Koreans will know the proper English terminology for an 'armful of something' is a 'yaffle'.

    Cockles, no Mussels, Alive, Alive, O gregarious monk 2009

  • Behind the hill, behind the trees, the green woodpecker – the yaffle – shouts his mocking, laugh-like call which in country weather lore is a sure sign of rain.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2010

  • Green-yellow, bursts from the copse the laughing yaffle;

    Love in the Valley 1919

  • Green-yellow, bursts from the copse the laughing yaffle;

    Love in the Valley 1909

  • From above the hedges the sleepy cows looked down; a yaffle laughed a field or two away; in the sycamores, which had come out before their time, the bees hummed.

    Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works John Galsworthy 1900

  • From above the hedges the sleepy cows looked down; a yaffle laughed a field or two away; in the sycamores, which had come out before their time, the bees hummed.

    The Country House John Galsworthy 1900

  • Green-yellow, bursts from the copse the laughing yaffle;

    Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868

  • a rattle, what a yaffle — as they call the woodpecker, the laughing bird that flits from tree to tree.

    Between the Acts 2004

Comments

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  • The Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis, from Europe and western Asia. See also: popinjay.

    September 14, 2007

  • lovely!

    September 14, 2007

  • I think it aptly describes that goofy little crest some woodpeckers have. ;-)

    September 14, 2007

  • Also a Newfoundland word describing a pile of seal pelts stacked to be dragged back to the ship.

    December 10, 2007

  • The Formative Minds

    are at it again -

    exchanging sterile

    platitudes, students

    sip Pils, wear daft clothes.

    One of them yaffles

    in gormless Scotch tones

    treating of ball games

    and cheeky rude pranks -

    he's a fun person.

    - Peter Reading, 5x5x5x5x5, 1983

    July 4, 2008

  • rainbird

    December 2, 2008

  • "The sharp cry of a woodpecker—the kind Jamie called a yaffle—echoed deep in the woods and then fell silent."

    —Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 165

    January 19, 2010

  • Like chickpea, garbanzo, falafel,

    The bird and its many names baffle.

    Is it more fun to say

    He’s a smug popinjay

    Than a hewhole, a high-hoe or yaffle?

    May 17, 2015