yelp

plural yelps

1. An abrupt, high-pitched noise or utterance.

   The puppy let out a yelp when I stepped on her tail.

   2 more examples

   “Before he was a twel’month ould he had a mouth full o’ great teeth; his hands wor like ’s claws, and his legs wor no thicker nor the handle of a whip, and about as straight as a rapin’ hook; to make the matther worse, he had the gut uv a cormorant, and the whinge, and the yelp, and the screech, and the yowl, was never out of his mouth.”

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 522

   The dog always moved, with a yelp, but it always got in the way again.

   1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, A Man Called Horse; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 177

   Synonyms: yawp

2. A type of emergency vehicle siren sounding quicker and more intense than the wail.

present singular third person yelps · participle present yelping · participle past yelped · past yelped

1. To utter an abrupt, high-pitched noise.

   The children yelped with delight as they played in the cold water.

   1 more example

   I followed it as well as I could, I who have so often boasted of my memory now sniffing along for what seemed a league at least like a brachet and ready almost to yelp for joy at the thought of a place I knew, after so much emptiness, silence, and blackness.

   1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter VI, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 38