[f. YELP v. + -ING1.]
† 1. Boasting, proud or pompous talk. Obs.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., xliii. (1889), 144. Pro sola inani gloria, for sylfre idelre ʓylpincge.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 11. Ne haue þu þines drihtenes nome in nane aða ne … in nane idel ȝelpunge.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 330. A derne ȝelpunge & huntunge efter hereword of more holinesse.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4266. Quintylian … ansuerede … þat bote ȝelpunge [v.r. ȝulpynge] & bost mid brutons noþing nas.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 492. He ȝerned ȝelpyng to here.
1340. Ayenb., 59. In þise boȝe byeþ vif leaues, þet byeþ vif manere of yelpinges.
c. 1400. T. Chestre, Launfal, 762. Why madest thou swyche yelpyng? That thy lemmannes lodlokest mayde Was fayrer than my wyf, thou seyde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 537/1. Ȝelpynge, or boostynge, jactancia.
2. The utterance of a sharp shrill cry. a. Of dogs or birds.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 881. The timerous yelping of the hounds.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VII. ix. The poor little animal, forgotten by its mistress,… was now discovered by its yelping.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1837), II. i. 24. Like children we ran away from the yelping of a cur.
1847. Bewick’s Brit. Birds, I. 7. [Eagles] often soar out of the reach of human sight: and notwithstanding the immense distance, their cry is still heard, and then resembles the yelping of a dog.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, ii. (1864), 33. We often heard the shrill yelping of the toucans.
b. Of persons. Also fig.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. (1640), 395. A ceremonious mourning … with such yelping, howling, shouting, and clapping of hands [etc.].
1854. Macaulay, in Trevelyan, Life (1880), II. 376. The yelping against Prince Albert is a mere way of filling up the time.
1894. D. McG. Means, in Forum (N.Y.), Aug., 643. The incessant snarling and yelping of demagogues at capitalists and corporations is not only tedious but mischievous, unless capitalists and corporations are to be done away with.
