Part 18

Chaucer.

3. A yeoman of the guard; also, a member of the yeomanry cavalry. [Eng.]

4. (Naut.) An interior officer under the boatswain, gunner, or carpenters, charged with the stowage, account, and distribution of the stores.

Yeoman of the guard, one of the bodyguard of the English sovereign, consisting of the hundred yeomen, armed with partisans, and habited in the costume of the sixteenth century. They are members of the royal household.

Yeo"man*like` (?), a. Resembling, or suitable to, a yeoman; yeomanly.

Yeo"man*ly, a. Pertaining to a yeoman; becoming or suitable to, a yeoman; yeomanlike. B. Jonson.

Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly.

Chaucer.

Yeo"man*ry (?), n. 1. The position or rank of a yeoman. [Obs.] "His estate of yeomanry." Chaucer.

2. The collective body of yeomen, or freeholders.

The enfranchised yeomanry began to feel an instinct for dominion.

Bancroft.

3. The yeomanry cavalry. [Eng.]

Yeomanry cavalry, certain bodies of volunteer cavalry liable to service in Great Britain only. [Eng.]

Yeor"ling (?), n. [Cf. Yellow.] (Zoöl.) The European yellow-hammer.

Yer (?), prep. Ere; before. [Obs.] Sylvester.

||Yer"ba (?), n. [Sp.] (Bot.) An herb; a plant.

This word is much used in compound names of plants in Spanish; as, yerba buena [Sp., a good herb], a name applied in Spain to several kinds of mint (Mentha sativa, viridis, etc.), but in California universally applied to a common, sweet- scented labiate plant (Micromeria Douglasii).

Yerba dol osa. [Sp., herb of the she-bear.] A kind of buckthorn (Rhamnus Californica). -- Yerba mansa. [Sp., a mild herb, soft herb.] A plant (Anemopsis Californica) with a pungent, aromatic rootstock, used medicinally by the Mexicans and the Indians. -- Yerba reuma. [Cf. Sp. reuma rheum, rheumatism.] A low California undershrub (Frankenia grandifolia).

Yerd (?), n. See 1st & 2d Yard. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Yerk (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Yerked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Yerking.] [See Yerk.]

1. To throw or thrust with a sudden, smart movement; to kick or strike suddenly; to jerk.

Their wounded steeds . . . Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters.

Shak.

2. To strike or lash with a whip. [Obs. or Scot.]

Yerk, v. i. 1. To throw out the heels; to kick; to jerk.

They flirt, they yerk, they backward . . . fling.

Drayton.