yankee
Syllables: yan·kee/ˈjæŋ.ki/
yankee noun: a headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest. Also the alternative letter-case form of Yankee from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
Noun (1)
yankee (plural yankees)
Noun (2) capitalized: Yankee
Yankee (plural Yankees)
- A native or inhabitant of the northern United States.
- […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859...
- “So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 71
- A native or inhabitant of New England.
- An anglo, someone without French ancestry; a native or inhabitant of the rest of the United States.
- A native or inhabitant of the United States in general.
- ...in a short time, a kind of infectious mirth and pride in their bargains took possession of the place, and every one bought something, holding out their purchases to view, and praising them in the words and phraseology of the young yankees, who, finding their own importance, were not slow to...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 194
- Synonyms:
- American, US American, Americunt, Ameritard, Seppo, septic, United Statesian, United Statian, Usanian, USian
- Any individual associated with the Union; that is, the United States federal government, during the American Civil War.
- Antonyms:
- Confederate, southron, reb
- A player for the New York Yankees.
- A large triangular headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on the fore topmast stay. Unlike a genoa it does not fill the whole fore triangle, but is set in combination with the working staysail.
- A wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold accumulator.
- Betting is complicated with win bets, place bets, each-way bets and complex bets such as doubles, trebles, Yankees and the like.1980 March 20, New Scientist, volume 85, number 1199
Verb capitalized: Yankee
Yankee (third-person singular simple present Yankees, present participle Yankeeing, simple past and past participle Yankeed)
- to cheat, trick or swindle somebody; to misrepresent something
- Kentuckians reportedly regarded a Yankee “as a sort of Jesuit” because of his religious zeal, while in Illinois the term yankeed was synonymous with cheated.2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 17, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN
Also used as
yankee is also the alternative letter-case form of Yankee from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
yankee is also the obsolete form of Yankee.
yankee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
yankee in Hindi
- यांकी, यैंकी, यान्की
yankee in Tamil
- யான்கி, யான்கீ
yankee in Marathi
- यांकी, यँकी, यान्की
yankee in Urdu
- یانکی
More languagesFewer languages
- yankee in Bengali
- ইয়াঙ্কি, ইয়াংকি, ইয়ানকি
- yankee in Telugu
- యాంకీ
- yankee in Malayalam
- യാങ്കി, യാൻകി, യാങ്കീ
- yankee in Kannada
- ಯಾಂಕೀ, ಯಾಂಕಿ
- yankee in Punjabi
- ਯਾਂਕੀ, ਯੰਕੀ, ਯੈਂਕੀ
- yankee in Gujarati
- યાન્કી, યાંકી
- yankee in Odia
- ଯ଼ାଙ୍କି, ଯ଼ାଙ୍କୀ, ଯ଼ାନ୍କି
- yankee in Nepali
- यान्की, यांकी, यन्की
Synonyms of yankee
6 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of yankee
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | yankees |
| plural | Yankees |
| alternative form (archaic) | Yanky |
| alternative form (archaic) | Yankey |
| alternative form (obsolete) | Yengee |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | Yankees |
| present participle | Yankeeing |
| past participle | Yankeed |
| past | Yankeed |
Origin of yankee
First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because the former refused to aid the latter in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, an Indian corruption of English; and that it derives from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".
Words formed from yankee
- damn Yankee
- seppo
- septic tank
- Yank
- Yankee bean
- Yankee cheese
- Yankee dime
- Yankeedom
- Yankee-Doodle
- Yankee go home
- Yankee ingenuity
- Yankeeism
- Yankees Creek
- Yankee screwdriver
- Yankee swap
- yanqui
Phrases with yankee
- Yankee Hill
- Yankee land
- Swamp Yankee
- Yankee beans
- Yankee dimes
- Yankee swaps
- Yankee White
- Yankee Doodle
- Yankee Doodles
- Yankee football
- Yankee tunesmith
- Yankee cheese-box
4 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with yankee
Questions about yankee
- What does yankee mean?
- Yankee means a headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest.
- What is yankee in Hindi?
- Yankee in Hindi is यांकी, यैंकी, यान्की. See Yankee meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is yankee?
- Yankee can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce yankee?
- Yankee is pronounced /ˈjæŋ.ki/.
- What is the plural of yankee?
- The plural of yankee is yankees.
Words near yankee in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yankee (page history and authors); Yankee (page history and authors); yankee (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); yankee (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-yankee.wav, En-au-Yankee.ogg.
Cite this entry: “yankee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yankee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.