# yabby
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈjæb.i/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -æbi

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Wemba-Wemba yabij.

#### Alternative forms

* yabbie

#### Noun

yabby (plural yabbies)
* (Australia) Any of various freshwater crayfish, typically of the genus Cherax, valued as food, especially Cherax destructor of southeastern Australia. [from 19th c.]
** 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 386:Having arrived at night I can speak with some authority on the desolate feeling the road produces: the white fire-scarred trunks, the unsettling vision of yabbies moving from one side of the road to the other.
** 2018, Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu, Scribe, published 2020, page 47:Wiradjuri people in New South Wales also built large dams, and then carried fish and yabbies in coolamons over large distances to stock the new waterholes.
* (Australia, chiefly Queensland) A species of marine ghost shrimp, Trypaea australiensis, widely harvested by recreational anglers as bait; a nipper. [from 20th c.]
** 1961, T. S. Hailstone, W. Stephenson, “The Biology of Callianassa (Trypaea) australiensis Dana 1852 (Crustacea, Thalassinidea)”, in University of Queensland Papers: Department of Zoology‎, volume I, number 12, page 260:Callianassa australiensis is known in southern New South Wales as the "ghost-nipper" (Dakin, Bennett and Pope, 1952), and in northern New South Wales and Queensland as the "yabby" (a word of aboriginal origin also applied to freshwater crayfish).
** 2007, J. McEnally, L. McEnally, “Yabbies (saltwater)”, in Julie & Lawrie McEnally's Complete Book of Fishing Baits & Rigs‎, page 70:Putting the yabby on a hook takes a little care and hook sizes need to match the physical dimensions of the yabby.
** 2007, J. Woodford, chapter 12, in Whitecap‎, page 132:Now she held the net in front of the pump so Penny could empty its contents. The first suck was mud, the second sometimes yielded a couple of yabbies but on the third, three or four yabbies nearly always spurted out, flicking their tails, weakly opening and closing their nippers.

##### Synonyms

* (only Cherax destructor) crawbob, crawchie
* (only Trypaea australiensis) ghost nipper

##### Derived terms

* bass yabby
* freshwater yabby
* marine yabby
* yabby pump

##### See also

* gilgie, jilgie
* marron

#### Verb

yabby (third-person singular simple present yabbies, present participle yabbying, simple past and past participle yabbied)
* (intransitive) To search, forage, or fish for yabbies.
** 2005, F. Mathews, editor, Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture‎, page 156:He would have known the Merri well, given the affinity between boys and creeks, and he probably fished and yabbied there.
** 2006, G. Cowlishaw, editor, Bourke: Our Yarns: The Stories Behind 'Blackfellas, Whitefellas'‎, page 83:The kids in town now that have the most fun are the so-called 'feral kids'. They spend the whole days doing what we used to do, yabbying and on the river.
** 2019, C. Zagar, Your Feet Take You To Where Your Heart Is‎, page 90:"Can we go yabbying?" "It'll be too hot," I say. "It's never too hot for yabbying." We are creating Christmas memories for our son.

##### Usage notes

Often used phrasally (go yabbying), by analogy with go fishing.

### Etymology 2

Unknown.

#### Verb

yabby (third-person singular simple present yabbies, present participle yabbying, simple past and past participle yabbied)
* (transitive, Nigeria, slang) To show disrespect by denouncing or insulting; to diss.
** 2019, J. Collins, Fela: Katakuta Notes‎, page 160:So Abiola invite Fela to his house for a big party, and Fela have to go as they are family—even though Fela had yabbied Abiola in his song "ITT" [International Thief Thief]. And it's true, Abiola duped the country for that money—everybody knows it.

##### Related terms

* yab
* yabbi