Meanings
plural gap yahs
- UKhumorousslangA gap year.
The sneers about my gap yah. The eye-rolling whenever I mentioned Exeter. Full of posh pricks, you said once. I thought I wasn't cool enough for you.
2022, Nicole Kennedy, After Paris2 more examples
I was at university in Paris for three months and I missed my friends desperately. I'd gone away without them on my gap yah but being in the Caribbean alone was fun, and people there were friendly and made me feel safe.
2020, Grace Campbell, Amazing Disgrace: A Book About "Shame"I pushed a strawberry sweet into my mouth, bagged up the afternoon's rubbish and thought about what my gap-yah girl would be called, what her favourite colour was, her favourite food.
2020, Naomi Joy, Do Her No Harm
Origin
From stereotypical pronunciation by the privileged upper class. Compare yah (“an upper-class person”). Gap Yah was the name of a comedy sketch of this kind, published on YouTube in February 2010.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gap yah. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gap%20yah
“gap yah.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gap%20yah. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gap yah,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gap%20yah.
Source: gap yah on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.