?noun
1. a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, esp. oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal. Compare harness (def. 1).
2. a pair of draft animals fastened together by a yoke: five yoke of oxen.
7. something that couples or binds together; a bond or tie.
8. Machinery. a viselike piece gripping two parts firmly together.
12. (in an airplane) a double handle, somewhat like a steering wheel in form, by which the elevators are controlled.
Not a strap; Not the metal thingies on the ends; Not the screws; Not the metal thingies the screws go into.
The yoke is the structural element that holds and supports the entire assembly. Cutting the tab does not alter the yoke in any fashion whatsoever. There is only one yoke on a duplex receptacle.
Cutting the tab does not create two single yokes. Cutting the tab electrically isolates the two yoked receptacles so that they can be wired separately. The receptacles remain on the same yoke.
It is also the yellow center of an egg which should not be broken by anyone except the customer unless he ordered it scrambled or broken. It's his egg - it's his right to break it.