: a round toy that has two flat sides with a string attached to its center, that is held in your hand, and that is made to go up and down by unwinding and rewinding the string with a movement of your wrist
Full Definition of YO-YO
: a thick grooved double disk with a string attached to its center axle that is made to fall and rise to the hand by unwinding and rewinding on the string
: a condition or situation marked by regular fluctuations from one extreme to another
: a small round toy that has two flattened disks with a string attached to the center and that is made to fall and rise to the hand by unwinding and rewinding on the string
Word History of YO-YO
Yo-yo comes from a similar sounding word in languages of the Philippines, where it is the name for a toy similar to our yo-yo. Though toys like the yo-yo have a long history in Europe and the Americas—a disk on a string called a whirligig was patented in 1866—the modern yo-yo dates from 1928, when an immigrant from the Philippines named Pedro Flores began to manufacture the toys in California based on the yo-yos he had known in his youth.
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