Nip
Pronunciation
- enPR: nÄp, IPA: /nɪp/
- Rhymes: -ɪp
Origin 1
From Middle English nippen ("a small sip").
Synonyms
- nibble of food
Origin 2
Diminutive of nipple.
Origin 3
Probably from a form of Middle Dutch nipen. Cognate with Danish nive ("pinch"); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen ("to pinch, cut off, nip"), Old Norse hnippa ("to prod, to poke"); Lithuanian knebti.
Verb
- To catch and enclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
- 1859, w, Idylls of the King, May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell, Down, down, and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such a traitress.
- To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
- 1716, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry, The small shoots ... must be nipt off.
- To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
- To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt.
- 1590, w, The Faerie Queene, And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip.
Noun
nip
(plural nips)- A playful bite.The puppy gave his owner’s finger a nip.
- A pinch with the nails or teeth.
- Briskly cold weather.There is a nip in the air. It is nippy outside.
- 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, "", :The day had only just broken, and there was a nip in the air; but the sky was cloudless, and the sun was shining yellow.
- A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.
- A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
- A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
- A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
- (nautical) A short turn in a rope. Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying equality in a contest. U.S.
- The place of intersection where one roll touches another in papermaking.
- (historical slang) A pickpocket.
- 1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, A novice nip, newly arrived in London, went one afternoon to the Red Bull in Bishopsgate, an inn converted to a playhouse.
Derived terms
Origin 4
Verb
- To make a quick, short journey or errand; usually roundtrip.Why don’t you nip down to the grocer’s for some milk?