Meaning & use
yak
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Meanings
nouncountable
A large, shaggy wild or domestic ox of the high mountains of Central Asia, kept for milk, wool and carrying loads.
Grammar: Countable; the plural is yaks, though yak is sometimes used for the animals collectively.
Patterns
- herd of yaks
A herd of yaks grazed on the high pasture beside the monastery.
Villagers load the yak with sacks of grain before crossing the pass.
Yak butter tea is a common drink in the Himalayas.
verbintransitiveinformal
To chat at length, usually about unimportant things.
Grammar: No object; often followed by about or away: they yak about nothing.
Patterns
- yak about something
- yak away
The two neighbors yak over the fence every morning.
We yakked for an hour about nothing at all.
He's always yakking on his phone on the train.
noununcountableinformal
Casual, aimless talk, or a talkative person.
Grammar: Usually uncountable in this sense: all that yak, with no plural.
Patterns
- a lot of yak
I tuned out the endless yak from the next table.
Cut the yak and get to the point.
There was plenty of yak at the party but little real news.
Word forms
| plural | yaks |
|---|---|
| third person singular | yaks |
| past tense | yakked |
| -ing form | yakking |
Common combinations
- herd of yaks
- A herd of yaks crossed the road.
- yak wool
- The scarf is knitted from soft yak wool.
- yak about
- They yak about sports for hours.
- yak on the phone
- She likes to yak on the phone with her cousin.
- yak butter
- Yak butter is used in traditional tea.
Synonyms and how they differ
- chat
- Chat is neutral and friendly, while yak suggests the talk is long and not very important.
- natter
- Natter is mostly British and similarly casual, but it feels cozier.
- jabber
- Jabber suggests fast, hard-to-follow talk, which is stronger than yak.
- babble
- Babble stresses meaningless or confused sounds more than a long, relaxed conversation.
Word family
- yakking noun
- idle, long talk
- yakker noun
- someone who talks a great deal
- yaks noun
- plural of the animal; third person singular of the verb
Commonly confused: yak or yack? yak or yuck?
yak vs yack
Yack is a variant spelling of the informal verb and noun for idle talk. Use yak for the animal.
yak vs yuck
Yuck is an exclamation of disgust and has no relation to yak.
Practice
My uncle will ___ for hours about his old car if you let him.
Choose one answer.
Yak means to talk at length about trivial matters. Yank means to pull, yoke means to join, and yawn is a sleepy mouth movement.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “yak”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.