| to bark; yelp. |
| chat, to converse |
hyphen (ˈhaɪfən) ![]() | |
| —n | |
| 1. | the punctuation mark (-), used to separate the parts of some compound words, to link the words of a phrase, and between syllables of a word split between two consecutive lines of writing or printing |
| —vb | |
| 2. | (tr) another word for hyphenate |
| [C17: from Late Latin (meaning: the combining of two words), from Greek huphen (adv) together, from | |
A punctuation mark (-) used in some compound words, such as self-motivation, seventy-five, and mother-in-law. A hyphen is also used to divide a word at the end of a line of type. Hyphens may appear only between syllables. Thus com-pound is properly hyphenated, but compo-und is not.