yo-yo

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A toy consisting of a spheroidal or cylindrical spindle having a circular groove in which string is wound; it is used by holding the string in the fingers and reeling the spindle up and down by movements of the wrist.
  2. A volatile market that moves up and down.
  3. Someone who vacillates.
  4. A dogfighting maneuver involving the attacker temporarily exchanging altitude for airspeed, or vice versa, in order to rapidly catch up with the defender or to prevent an overshoot.
  5. A cloth rosette formed by gathering the outside edge of a circle of fabric in toward the centre using a running stitch.
  6. A foolish, annoying or incompetent person.
verb
  1. To vacillate; to move up and down.

Pronunciation

/ˈjəʊ.jəʊ/ /ˈjoʊ.joʊ/ en-us-yo-yo.ogg /ˈjəʉ.jəʉ/ /ˈjɐʉ.jɐʉ/ /ˈjo.jo/ /ˈjoː.joː/

Word forms

yo-yo yo-yos yo-yoing yo-yoed

Etymology

Genericized trademark. Most likely from Ilocano yóyo, or another Philippine cognate.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.