yes — ODE · Shobdo

yes /jɛs

▸ exclamation

1 used to give an affirmative response:

‘Do you understand?’ ‘Yes.’.

▪ expressing agreement with a positive statement:

‘That was a grand evening.’ ‘Yes, it was.’.

▪ asked at the end of a statement to indicate the expectation of agreement:

you think I perhaps killed Westbourne, yes?.

▪ expressing contradiction of a negative statement:

‘You don't want to go.’ ‘Yes, I do.’.

2 used as a response to someone addressing one or trying to attract one's attention:

‘Oh, Mr Lawrence.’ ‘Yes?’.

3 used to question a remark:

‘It should be easy to check.’ ‘Oh yes? How?’.

4 encouraging someone to continue speaking:

‘When you bought those photographs …’ ‘Yes?’.

5 expressing great pleasure or excitement:

plenty to eat, including hot hamburger sandwiches (yes!).

6 expressing irritation or impatience:

‘Is the pain still there?’ ‘Yes, yes, damn you, the pain is always there’.

▸ noun

(plural yeses or plural yesses)

an affirmative answer or decision, especially in voting:

answering with assured and ardent yeses.

– PHRASES

yes and no partly and partly not:

‘Did it come as a surprise to you?’ ‘Yes and no.’.

– ORIGIN Old English gēse, gīse, apparently from yea1.