yessir
/ˈjɛsə
/ /jɛsˈsəː /informal
exclamation
1Used to express assent to a superior: ‘Do you understand me?’ ‘Yessir!’...
- They'll sweat their rears off, they'll yessir and nosir you to death, but when it comes down to it, they're just too damn eager, too revved up to slow down and think.
- It's all ‘yessir, nosir, yessir, nosir…’ It could start to make a man a little depressed. ‘Little’ meaning up to the extent of suicidal.
- Uh, yessir - pardun me, sir - but, uh, how will the ship know time's movin’ a-forwart?
1.1North American Used to express emphatic affirmation: yessir the food was cheap...
- I be keepin’ you young'uns outta trouble today, yessir!’
- ‘Why, yessir, we do,’ Luca said matter-of-factly.
- They never fail to liven up our putrid existence. hecklerspray has a particular penchant for a cat fight and, yessir, there's one a-brewin’!
verb (yessirs, yessirring, yessirred) [with object]
Defer to (someone) as a superior: you’re used to people yessirring you left and right...
- A resident doctor, brought up on rich diet of yessirring, learns to follow suit be it a lecture, a conference, or the debating by a medical propagandist euphemistically called a medical representative.
- I had been yessirring and nossiring him the whole time, being as calm and polite as possible, but I kind of lost it at this point.
- Not yessirring to a boss is the main point of doing this rather than employment.
Origin
Early 20th century: alteration of yes sir.