yo-yo
UK/ˈjəʊ.jəʊ//ˈjoʊ.joʊ/
yo-yo noun: a toy consisting of a spheroidal or cylindrical spindle having a circular groove in which string is wound; it is used by holding the string in the fingers and reeling the spindle up and down by movements of the wrist.
Noun
yo-yo (plural yo-yos)
- A toy consisting of a spheroidal or cylindrical spindle having a circular groove in which string is wound; it is used by holding the string in the fingers and reeling the spindle up and down by movements of the wrist.
- I bought a yo-yo from the toy store yesterday.
- A volatile market that moves up and down.
- Someone who vacillates.
- A dogfighting maneuver involving the attacker temporarily exchanging altitude for airspeed, or vice versa, in order to rapidly catch up with the defender or to prevent an overshoot.
- A cloth rosette formed by gathering the outside edge of a circle of fabric in toward the centre using a running stitch.
- A foolish, annoying or incompetent person.
- It is hard to watch the management for very long and not conclude that the place is run by a bunch of yo-yos.
- Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it1985, Sting, Mark Knopfler, “Money for Nothing”, in Brothers in Arms, performed by Dire Straits
Verb
yo-yo (third-person singular simple present yo-yos, present participle yo-yoing, simple past and past participle yo-yoed)
- To vacillate; to move up and down.
- The yo-yoing stockmarket whizzed back up by around a quarter and then started to fall again.1990, The Economist, volume 316, page 93
yo-yo meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Arabic
yo-yo in Hindi
- toy
- योयो yoyo, यो-यो yo-yo
yo-yo in Marathi
- toy
- योयो yoyo
yo-yo in Urdu
- toy
- یو یو yo-yo
yo-yo in Arabic
- toy
- يُويُو yūyū
More languagesFewer languages
- yo-yo in Malay
- yoyo
- yo-yo in Persian
- یویو yoyo
- yo-yo in Thai
- โยโย่ yoh-yôh
- Dhivehi
- ޔޯޔޯ yōyō
Examples of yo-yo in a sentence
- Any of you yo-yos headed up Castle Hill?"1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
- When these yo-yos came into the courtroom with their ridiculous testimony... it was a terrible circus.1992 February 2, Mitzel, quoting James Kirkwood, “Clay Shaw, The Quean Network & That Kennedy Killing”, in Gay Community News, volume 19...
Forms of yo-yo
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | yo-yos |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | yo-yos |
| present participle | yo-yoing |
| past participle | yo-yoed |
| past | yo-yoed |
Origin of yo-yo
Genericized trademark. Most likely from Ilocano yóyo, or another Philippine cognate.
Words formed from yo-yo
Phrases with yo-yo
Questions about yo-yo
- What does yo-yo mean?
- Yo-yo means a toy consisting of a spheroidal or cylindrical spindle having a circular groove in which string is wound; it is used by holding the string in the fingers and reeling the spindle up and down by movements of the wrist.
- What is yo-yo in Hindi?
- Yo-yo in Hindi is योयो (yoyo), यो-यो (yo-yo). See Yo-yo meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use yo-yo in a sentence?
- Any of you yo-yos headed up Castle Hill?"
- What part of speech is yo-yo?
- Yo-yo can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce yo-yo?
- Yo-yo is pronounced /ˈjəʊ.jəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of yo-yo?
- The plural of yo-yo is yo-yos.
Words near yo-yo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yo-yo (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-yo-yo.ogg.
Cite this entry: “yo-yo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yo-yo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.