Yank

1. a slang word for an American

2. US informal short for Yankee

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Yank

steamship stoker vainly tries to climb the social ladder, then fails in attempt to avenge himself on society. [Am. Drama: O’Neill The Hairy Ape in Sobel, 339]

See: Failure

yank

(jargon)

(From the colloquial meaning "to pull suddenly") To insert a copy of some saved text at the current position in a document being edited.

The term is used in the Unix text editors GNU Emacs and vi but "paste" is more common elsewhere.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

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References in periodicals archive

Known as a COX-2 inhibitor, Bextra belongs to the same class of drugs as rofecoxib (Vioxx), which manufacturer Merck yanked from pharmacy shelves last September after safety risks appeared (SN: 10/30/04, p.

Company pulls pain drug from market

AOL yanked Gnutella because, as one executive says, "This is complicated for us."

The Day The Software Died

"The star was being yanked around by the gravitational field of not one, not two, but three planets!"

New Planets

Joe Goode has apparently solved the tug-of-war that for years yanked him from the world of dance to theater and back again by taking a leading role in a peculiarly West Coast, specifically Bay Area, manifestation of post-postmodernism, the New Emotionalism.

Joe Goode Performance Group

The youth, hit in the arm, buttocks, and thigh, yanked the gun from Kilcoyne, only to learn that it was empty.

Marines don't quit

Applying a negative voltage to the tip yanked the electron back, returning the gold atom to its neutral state.

Charging gold with a single electron

Since the Lambda-winning King & King was yanked from a school library in Wilmington, N.C., just imagine how King & King & Family will shake up conservatives.

For kids

The robber, Roger Campbell, apparently followed Theresa's mother, Barbara, home from the grocery store on February 15; he then followed her into her garage and yanked her purse away from her.

Lackluster advice

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