yenta

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“
She plays a lawyer who has a side business matching as a yenta.

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Definitions (3)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Slang A person, especially a woman, who is meddlesome or gossipy.

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Examples

  • She plays a lawyer who has a side business matching as a yenta. —  CNN Transcript Sep 17, 2003
  • She is a sick yenta for mentioning it, and don ` t listen to her. —  CNN Transcript Oct 7, 2008
  • The yenta is a mashup of the best qualities of not missing a trick and caring. —  Law And More
  • Senator Monserrate raises the stakes, though, by calling the mayor a yenta - 'a female motormouth. ' —  Gothamist
  • Talking to an old yenta like me, going to all this trouble just for a school paper. " —  Manhattan Is My Beat
 

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Yenta has been looked up 156 times, favorited 0 times, listed 8 times, and commented on 0 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Yiddish yente, back-formation from the woman's name Yente, alteration of Yentl, from Old Italian Gentile, from gentile, amiable, highborn, from Latin gentīlis, of the same clan; see gentle.
 

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