yips

yips (yips)  n

Definition:
the apparent loss of certain fine motor skills seemingly without explanation in one of a number of different sports, esp golf

Origin:
[Golfer Tommy] Armour is believed to have coined the term "yips" to describe the nervous affliction that makes short putts treacherous for some golfers. He said of the yips, "Once you've had 'em, you've got 'em."


Sentence Examples:
• But during the playoffs, Ankiel got a case of the yips as he couldn't find the strike zone. In one inning, he walked four batters and threw five wild pitches — an event not witnessed since 1890 — before manager Tony La Russa mercifully removed him. - Time, 2009

• And he was far from alone; the yips often robs a golfer of the ability to sink even the most routine putts. - The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, Sandra Blakeslee, Matthew Blakeslee

• The yips afflict people performing a variety of professions, including musicians, stenographers, dentists, and surgeons. Thy are most likely to hit folks who overuse the muscles involved in guiding precision movements. So it's no surprise that as Mia's dad ups his time on the green, his likelihood of experiencing the yips increases as well. - Defending a Small Continent, Hugh White, Sian Beilock

Sources: Wikipediia, About.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

yare

yare (yahr)  adv

Definition:
1. agile; lively
2. responding easily; maneuverable (nautical, used of a vessel)
3. ready; prepared (archaic) 

yarely adverb

Origin:
before 900; O.E. gearo "ready," from P.Gmc. prefix *ga- + *arw-; related to gearwe "clothing, dress"

Related:
Synonyms: agile, lively; maneuverable; ready, prepared
Related Words: gear

Sentence Examples:
• Now I shall tell thee that we have striven to beat, so as not to be driven off our course, but all would not avail, wherefore for these three hours we have been running before the wind; but, fair sir, so big hath been the sea that but for our ship being of the stoutest, and our men all yare, we had all grown exceeding wise concerning the ground of the mid-main. - The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris

• Your ships are not well mann'd;
Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress. In Caesar's fleet
Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought;
Their ships are yare; yours heavy. No disgrace
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,
Being prepar'd for land.
 - The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare

• Faith, then, up foot! be yare, or, by the mass, I may forget that I am in some sort your captain and in some your debtor!  Go! - The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stevenson

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

yardang

yar•dang (YAHR-dahng)  n

Definition:
a keel-shaped crest or ridge of rock, formed by the action of the wind, usually parallel to the prevailing wind direction

Origin:
earlier jardang,  term introduced by Sven Hedin (1904); perhaps a compound with Uigur yar  "cliff, precipice", or a cognate Turkic word

Sentence Examples:
• As climate changes or streams are diverted, yardang landscapes may be flooded. - Geomorphology of desert environments, A. J. Parsons, Athol D. Abrahams

• Because many of the martian yardangs seem to be structurally controlled, structural influence must be carefully evaluated if yardang orientations are used to interpret wind directions on Mars. - Geological Survey professional paper, 1978

• There is little real diagnostic evidence on the yardang slopes themselves that they are wind eroded, since between the more intense winds that perform most of the removal there are probably periods in which rainfall or dew destroys the evidence. - Geomorphology in deserts, Ronald U. Cooke, Andrew Warren

Wikipedia:

A yardang is a streamlined hill carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion, dust and sand, and deflation. Yardangs are elongate features typically three or more times longer than they are wide, and when viewed from above, resemble the hull of a boat. Facing the wind is a steep, blunt face that gradually gets lower and narrower toward the lee end. Yardangs are formed by wind erosion, typically of an originally flat surface formed from areas of harder and softer material. The soft material is eroded and removed by the wind, and the harder material remains. The resulting patter of yardangs is therefore a combination of the original rock distribution, and the fluid mechanics of the air flow and resulting pattern of erosion.

Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

yashmak

yash•mak (yahsh-MAHK, YASH-mak)  n
also yashmac or yasmak

Definition:
a veil worn by Muslim women that is wrapped around the upper and lower parts of the face so that only the eyes remain exposed to public view

Origin:
1844; Turkish yaşmak


Sentence Examples:
• The girl wore absolutely nothing except a Yashmak and a zone of blue jewels across her breasts and hips. -The Moonlit Way, by Robert W. Chambers

• But he is the writer society delights in, to show what it is composed of. A man brazen enough to declare that he could hold us in suspense about the adventures of a broomstick, with the aid of a yashmak and an ankle, may know the world; you had better not know him—that is my remark; and do not trust him. -The Amazing Marriage, Complete, by George Meredith

• Most of these qualities, I am aware, are found in many another pair of lambent, dreamy eyes half-hidden by the soft folds of a yashmak--eyes which these houris often flash on some poor devil of a giaour, knowing how safe they are and how slim his chance for further acquaintance. -The Veiled Lady, by F. Hopkinson Smith

Sources: Merriam-Webster

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

yaw

yaw (yaw)

Definition:
verb (used without object)
1. to deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship
2. (of an aircraft) to have a motion about its vertical axis
3. (of a rocket or guided missile) to deviate from a stable flight attitude by oscillation of the longitudinal axis in the horizontal plane

verb (used with object)
4. to cause to yaw

noun
5. a movement of deviation from a direct course, as of a ship
6. a motion of an aircraft about its vertical axis
7. an angle, to the right or left, determined by the direction of motion of an aircraft or spacecraft and its vertical and longitudinal plane of symmetry
8. (of a rocket or guided missile) the act of yawing; the angular displacement of the longitudinal axis due to yawing


Origin:
1546; from O.N. jaga, O.Dan. jæge "to drive, chase," from M.L.G. jagen, from O.H.G. jagon, from P.Gmc. *jagojanan

Related:
Synonyms: bank, curve, deviate, slue, swerve, turn, veer, weave, zigzag
Related Words: yacht

Sentence Examples:
• Just in time I blow my horn, and your boat she yaw a little. Then I see you come all down. Eh, wha-at? I think you are cut into baits by the screw, but you dreeft—dreeft to me, and I make a big fish of you. So you shall not die this time. -Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling

• She had evidently more on her than she could bear; yet it was in vain to try to take it in--the clewline was not strong enough; and they were thinking of cutting away, when another wide yaw and a come-to, snapped the guys, and the swinging boom came in, with a crash, against the lower rigging.  -Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana

• We had almost despaired of escaping, when fortunately one of our shot brought down the advanced frigates fore topsail yard, and we soon found we were leaving her. The second yawed, and gave us a broadside; only two of her shot took effect by striking near the fore channels. Her yaw saved us, as we gained on her considerably. -A Sailor of King George, The Journals of Captain Frederick Hoffman

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day