Blip

Pronunciation

Origin

Onomatopoeic.

Full definition of blip

Noun

1. A small dot registered on electronic equipment, such as a radar or oscilloscope screen.
• 1985, Frederick Forsyth, The Fourth ProtocolWhen the blip began to move up the oscilloscope screen, they followed again.
• 2004, Asaf Degani, Taming HAL: Designing Interfaces Beyond 2001At 6:45 pm, the chief officer saw a blip on the radar, approximately seven nautical miles away.
2. A short sound of a single pitch, usually electronically generated.
• 2000, Ken Norton, Going the DistanceBlip..Blip..Blip..Blip  There was that annoying noise again.
• 2002, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, In Search of the Warrior Spirit: Teaching Awareness Disciplines to the Green BeretsThe little “blip” sound that happens when a balloon is shot down becomes a duet with the player. “Blip” “Damn!” “Blip” “Damn!”
3. (after definition 1) A brief and usually minor aberration or deviation from what is expected or normal.
• 2003, Brett Grodeck, The First Year - HIV: An Essential Guide for the Newly DiagnosedThere's a chance this is just a viral blip, an intermittent spike of low-level virus that just happens in people on successful HIV treatment.
• 2003, Dany Spencer Adams, Lab Math: A Handbook of Measurements, Calculations, and Other Quantitative Skills for Use at the BenchAs a cell moves through the aperture it causes a blip (a brief change) in the voltage when the nonconductive cell briefly displaces the conductive medium.

Verb

1. (transitive) To skip over or ignore (with out).
• 1990, Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, Defining the Frontier: A Policy ChallengeIf we look, for example, at Laramie County, with a population density of 26.8 per square mile, if you blipped out Cheyenne, Laramie County would change significantly.
• 1996, John Dunning, The Bookman's WakeHe listened but his mind heard only words and blipped out meanings.
2. (intransitive) To change state abruptly, such as between off and on or dark and light, sometimes implying motion.
• 2003, Dennis Lehane, Mystic RiverAnd yet, they pulsed and glowed and shimmied and flared and stared at you, just like now—staring in at his and Whitey's own lights as they blipped past on the expressway....
• 2005, Craig Lansford, Tales from Salome: Broken AngelThe screen blipped out as the connection was terminated.... A few seconds passed before the screen again blipped to life.