Yankee Doodle

American

[dood-l] / ˈdud l /

noun

(italics) a song with a melody of apparent British origin, popular with American troops during the Revolutionary War.
a Yankee.

Yankee Doodle British

noun

an American song, popularly regarded as a characteristically national melody
another name for Yankee

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

“Yankee Doodle” Cultural

A popular American song, dating from the eighteenth century. The early settlers of New York were Dutch, and the Dutch name for Johnny is Janke, pronounced “Yankee.” This is the most likely origin of the term Yankee. Doodle meant “simpleton” in seventeenth-century English. First sung during the American Revolutionary War by the British troops to poke fun at the strange ways of the Americans (Yankees), the song was soon adopted by American troops themselves. Since then, the song has been considered an expression of American patriotism. The popular version of the first stanza is:
Yankee Doodle came to town

Riding on a pony;

He stuck a feather in his hat

And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,

Yankee Doodle dandy;

Mind the music and the step,

And with the girls be handy.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

On a typical day, an American family would be more likely to entertain itself at home by singing traditional folk songs like “Barbara Allen,” patriotic songs such as “Yankee Doodle” or hymns like “Amazing Grace.”

From The Wall Street Journal

It’s all a long way from singing “Yankee Doodle” and waiting for the next traveling fair to show up.

From The Wall Street Journal

From the origins of “Yankee Doodle” to the first rock ’n’ roll single to hit No. 1—or identifying presidential nicknames and recalling movie lines—there’s much to know about culture in America.

From The Wall Street Journal

And before I could say Yankee Doodle, I was swept onto the marble dance floor and forced to divide my time among four of the South’s clumsiest, rock-footed mutineers.

From Literature

Is Chalamet going to be the latest actor to win an Oscar for playing a music legend, a not-always-proud tradition that goes back to James Cagney’s energetic portrayal of entertainer George M. Cohan in the 1942 film “Yankee Doodle Dandy”? Maybe.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023