yearn, to vex, grieve; ‘It would yearn your heart’, Merry Wives, iii. 5. 45; ‘It yearn’d my heart’, Richard II, v. 5. 76 (in quartos ernd); ‘It yearns me not’, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26. Hence yearnful (yernful), mournful, Greene, A Maiden’s Dream, st. 7. See [earn] (to grieve).
yearne, to give tongue as hounds do, to bay, Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, pp. 181, 186, 240); see [yorning].
yearne, to earn. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 40; vi. 7. 15. OE. ge-earnian, earnian, to earn.
yede, yeed, improperly used as an infin., to go. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 5; ii. 4. 2 yeade, pr. pl. (improp. used), Shep. Kal., July, 109; yode, pt. s. went, id., May, 22, 233; yod, Golding, Metam. vi. 330. ME. yede, went (Chaucer, C. T. G. 1141); ȝede, ȝeode (P. Plowman), OE. ge-ēode (and ēode), went. See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Eode).
yeding, going. Sackville, Mirror of Mag., Induction, st. 30.
yelden, submissive; ‘The fierce lion will hurt no yelden thinges’ (i.e. creatures that have submitted), Sir T. Wyatt, To his ladie cruel over her Yelden Lover, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 62. See [yold].
yellow. Bands dyed with yellow starch, much used by Mrs. Turner, became unfashionable when that infamous woman was hung (Nov. 15, 1615) for being concerned in the murder of Sir Thos. Overbury; but not very long after they were again in use. ‘Hateful As yellow bands’, The Widow, v. 1 (Martia); ‘Disliked your yellow starch’, Beaumont and Fl., Queen of Corinth, iv. 1 (Tutor).
yellow breeches, to wear, to be jealous. Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 2 (Stephano). Yellow, as the hue of jealousy, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2. 14.
yellow-hammer, (jocosely) a gold coin. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (2 Guard).
yellowness, jealousy. Merry Wives, i. 3. 111.