What does yammering mean?
Yammering means talking continuously at great length, usually in a way that becomes tedious, irritating, or overly insistent. It can also describe a loud, sustained mechanical noise, as when a neglected engine yammers in the night. The word is chiefly informal and carries a mildly critical or comic edge: yammering often suggests that the speaker is continuing without giving the listener a useful pause. People may say that a colleague keeps yammering on about a subject or ask someone to stop yammering. Unlike a neutral report of speaking, the term emphasizes persistence and, commonly, unwanted noise. Yet it can also be playfully affectionate among friends who know someone’s habit of talking at length. Yammering is useful when ordinary words such as talking, chatting, or complaining do not capture the combination of duration, volume, and social irritation.
verbTo speak continuously at length, especially in a tedious, insistent, or irritating way. It can also describe producing a loud, sustained or repeated noise.
- To speak continuously at length, especially in a tedious, insistent, or irritating way.
- To produce a loud, sustained or repeated noise.
"He stopped yammering about his weekend and finally let everyone else speak."
"The children kept yammering on about the cartoons they wanted to watch."
"The old machine yammered loudly in the corner of the workshop."
Yammering began as a word for loud crying, but today it often describes someone talking with tiresome persistence.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does yammering come from?
Yammering derives from yammer, a word attested in the late 16th century for talking or crying loudly. Yammer comes from Middle Dutch jammeren, meaning to yell or howl, and is probably imitative in origin. The Middle Dutch form is cognate with German jammern, meaning to lament or whine, while related Germanic forms preserve older senses of crying, complaint, and distress.
Related word forms
How yammering is actually used
The word is chiefly informal and commonly carries a mildly critical or comic connotation, suggesting that someone is talking too much or with little regard for others. Its literal sense for a loud, sustained mechanical noise is more neutral.