What it means
Yapping is that nonstop mouth-noise when someone keeps going and going, usually about stuff nobody needed the full director's cut on. It's often annoying, a bit pointless, or way too much for the room. You can use it jokingly with mates, but it usually means shut it a bit, you're waffling.
Usage examples
"Mate, stop yapping and give us a hand, yeah? We’ve been stuck on this sofa for ages and you’re still chatting rubbish."
"She was yapping on the phone the whole train journey, everyone could hear about her cousin's divorce."
"Less yapping, more graft, lads, the van's not going to load itself before the rain comes in."
"Bro was yapping through the whole film like the plot needed his live commentary."
"She's always yapping about drama at work, then says she hates gossip."
Where it comes from
It comes from yap, a word first used for the sharp bark of a small dog. By the 19th century it had already stretched into meaning noisy, silly, trivial talk. Yapping is just the ongoing version, and that snappy little-dog image still sticks to it when people say it now.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
Counselor of Tiny Silences Official watcher of this expression
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