yanked; yanking; yanks
: to pull on something with a quick vigorous movement
1
: to pull or extract with a quick vigorous movement
2
: to remove in or as if in an abrupt manner
yanked the story from the evening edition
Examples of yank in a Sentence
Verb
He yanked the door shut.
She yanked on the dog's leash.
Noun (1)
had to give the shoe a good yank to get it off
Recent Examples on the Web
Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2026
But the suspicion the US wasn’t really a football nation was compounded at the opening ceremony, after Diana Ross danced the length of the pitch to take a penalty kick and yanked the ball far left of the goal, which was unfortunately rigged to split apart to simulate a wonder-strike.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 9 June 2026
Kansas City Star, 22 May 2026
No snagging Lower-quality beard combs often have the intolerable tendency to pull, yank or just rip out clumps of facial hair.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 29 Apr. 2026
Chris Ciolli, AFAR Media, 15 July 2025
Running on a level surface (in supportive shoes—see above!) can serve as plenty a cardio workout without the extra yank on your plantar fascia.
—Erica Sloan, SELF, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for yank
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Verb
An abrupt sell-off in once-soaring artificial intelligence stocks yanked Wall Street sharply lower, erasing five weeks of gains and knocking the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, Dow and Nasdaq into broad retreat.
—Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2026
But the suspicion the US wasn’t really a football nation was compounded at the opening ceremony, after Diana Ross danced the length of the pitch to take a penalty kick and yanked the ball far left of the goal, which was unfortunately rigged to split apart to simulate a wonder-strike.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 9 June 2026
Noun
Connie Lansdown, the hysterectomy patient, watches the storm yank a man from a reclining chair and drag him down the hall.
—Kansas City Star, 22 May 2026
No snagging Lower-quality beard combs often have the intolerable tendency to pull, yank or just rip out clumps of facial hair.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 29 Apr. 2026
Noun
Visitors to China will want to lighten their grip, while folks introducing themselves to Germans should know to stop after one firm downward yank.
—Chris Ciolli, AFAR Media, 15 July 2025
Running on a level surface (in supportive shoes—see above!) can serve as plenty a cardio workout without the extra yank on your plantar fascia.
—Erica Sloan, SELF, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for yank
Cite this Entry
“Yank.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yank. Accessed 15 Jun. 2026.
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