Also yop. [f. next.] A harsh, hoarse, or querulous cry, esp. of a bird.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., Yawp, the cry of a sickly bird; or one in distress.
1879. Black, Macleod of D., ix. The eagle raised its great wings, and … flapped them … while it uttered a succession of shrill yawps.
1905. Sat. Rev., 12 Aug., 207/2. He can only tell us how bad he is by hideous grimaces and inarticulate yawps.
b. fig. Applied in contempt to speech or utterance likened to this.
1844. ‘Jonathan Slick,’ High Life N. York, I. 114. He looked round as if he wanted to say something…; but I told him to go ahead and hold his yop.
1882. Stevenson, Fam. Stud. 93. When Mr. Spencer found his Synthetic Philosophy reverberated from the other shores of the Atlantic in the ‘barbaric yawp’ of Whitman.
