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Yiff is part of a range of onomatopoeic words that form a pseudo-language used by the furry role-playing community: yiff, yip, yerf, yaff, yarf, growf, and growlf (in order from most positive connotations to most negative connotations). Yiff meant yes or an exuberant hello!. Later, yiff was assigned a meaning of a sexual proposition, a meaning that had previously been assigned to yipp (a coarse form of yip).




  1. (onomatopoeic, apocryphal) Representing the bark of a fox (especially while mating).
  2. (of a person, informal) To express happiness, to state that something is sexy.


yiff (usually uncountable, plural yiffs)

  1. (informal) A bark.
  2. (slang, informal) The act of yiffing.
    • 1996-07-14, j.serdy, “RFC: A Beginner’s Guide to TinySex on the FurryMuck”, alt.fan.furry[1],
      Of course the inverse is possible with all these possibilities, and you can be having a yiff with a partner in the room with you and be having a pleasant non-sexual conversation with another remote player through a page-conversation.
  3. (slang, informal) Pornography of furries (fictional anthropomorphic animal characters).
    Do you draw yiff?



yiff (third-person singular simple present yiffs, present participle yiffing, simple past and past participle yiffed)

  1. (intransitive, apocryphal) To bark (said of foxes).
  2. (intransitive, of a person, apocryphal) To bark like a fox (especially in a sexual way).
  3. (transitive and intransitive, slang, informal) To have sex, to mate (said of animals, especially foxes).
    • 1997-10-17, StarChaser, “What to genocide”, rec.games.roguelike.nethack[2],
      Monsters snicker at me, succubi refuse to be seen with me, my dog tries to yiff my leg, shopkeepers say ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service’.
    • 1997-09-22, Locandez, “Hypothetical Question #3: acting natural”, alt.lifestyle.furry[3],
      And even if foxes are allowed to yiff more than once, I’d still have to wait for the vixen to come into heat.
    • 1997-09-23, MegaDog the Nettweiler, “Hypothetical Question #3: acting natural”, alt.lifestyle.furry[4],
      Well, i’ve witnessed male foxes queueing up to yiff one of my local vixens… repeatedly!
  4. (transitive and intransitive, slang, informal) To propose cybersex.

Derived terms[edit]




Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old English ġif.



  1. if
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Lydgate Fall of Princes
      Yiff ther was lak, thou woldest crie & pleyne.
      And yiff that trust with pryncis wil nat tarie,
      Litil merueile thouh the peeple varie…
    • (Can we date this quote?) Geoffrey Chaucer
      […] That yiff that god that hevene and erthe made
      Wolde haue a love For beaute and goodness
      And womanhede and trouthe and semelynesse […]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English giefan.



  1. alternative form of yiven
    • 1393, Jean d’Arras Roman de Melusine
      Another ordre to you yiff I shall,
      A knyght will you mak of full hye degre
      As your brethren ben named ryght roiall.