From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishyelpyelp /jelp/ noun [countable] HBACa short sharp high cry which a person or an animal makes because they are excited, in pain, surprised etcgive/let out a yelp of pain/dismay/surprise etc The water was hotter than she had expected, and she gave an involuntary yelp. —yelp verb [intransitive] The dog ran up and down, yelping.
Examples from the Corpus
yelp• Ten minutes later, from somewhere ahead, I heard a little yelp and camel noises.• Whimperings, body movements, tail-wags, even little yelps are all heard to emanate from sleeping canines.• Denice lets out little yelps of laughter at the occasional humorous moments and squirms and groans during the gory bits.• The song crescendos and is destroyed in a flurry of yelps and crashing cymbals.• Only during a stop do they howl or yelp, as the frustration of inactivity gets to them.• They woke in panic and, accompanied by Clarissa's yelps, were thrown out.• She jumped back from the fire with a sudden yelp of pain.• I could tell by the yelps of anguish from the centralizers in Washington if by no other way.• Then they withdrew the arrows and held them up to view as before, with triumphant yelps.Origin yelp Old English gielpan 