Definitions for yankeeˈyæŋ ki

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

Yan•keeˈyæŋ ki(n.)

a native or inhabitant of the United States.
Category: Peoples
a native or inhabitant of New England.
Category: Peoples
a native or inhabitant of a Northern state.
Category: American History, Peoples
a Federal soldier in the Civil War.
Category: American History
(adj.)of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Yankee or Yankees:
Yankee ingenuity.
Category: Peoples

Origin of Yankee:

1750–60, Amer.; perh. back formation from D Jan Kees John Cheese (taken as pl.), nickname applied by the Dutch of colonial New York to English settlers in Connecticut

Yan′kee•dom(n.)

Princeton's WordNet

Yankee, Yank, Northerner(noun)
an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War)
New Englander, Yankee(noun)
an American who lives in New England
Yankee, Yank, Yankee-Doodle(adj)
an American (especially to non-Americans)
Yankee(adj)
used by Southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier)

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

Yankee(noun)ˈyæŋ ki
sb from the northern U.S.
***Yankees who came south to live
Yankeeˈyæŋ ki
sb from an old New England family in the U.S.
***an old Yankee family

Wiktionary

Yankee(Noun)
A native or inhabitant of New England.
Yankee(Noun)
A native or inhabitant of the Northern USA.
Yankee(Noun)
A native or inhabitant of the USA.
Yankee(Noun)
A large triangular headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on the fore topmast stay. Unlike a genoa it does not fill the whole fore triangle, but is set in combination with the working staysail.
Yankee(Noun)
A player that plays for the New York Yankees.
Yankee(Noun)
A wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold accumulator. A minimum two selections must win to gain a return.

Origin: First attested in 1683, as a name applied disparagingly by Dutch settlers in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) to English colonists in neighboring Connecticut. It may be from Janke, the diminutive form of the common personal name Jan, or it may be from Jan Kees, the familiar form of "Johan Cornelius", or a variant of Jan Kaas, literally "John Cheese", the generic nickname the Flemings used for Dutchmen. It originally seems to have been applied insultingly to Dutch, especially freebooters, before they turned around and applied it to the English. In English it was a term of contempt (1750s) before it came to be used as a general term for "a native of New England" (1765). The shortened form Yank was first recorded in reference to "an American" in 1778.

Webster Dictionary

Yankee(noun)
a nickname for a native or citizen of New England, especially one descended from old New England stock; by extension, an inhabitant of the Northern States as distinguished from a Southerner; also, applied sometimes by foreigners to any inhabitant of the United States
Yankee(adj)
of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees