Nip

Pronunciation

• enPR: nÄ­p, IPA: /nɪp/
• Rhymes: -ɪp

From Middle English nippen ("a small sip").

Full definition of nip

Noun

1. A small quantity of something edible or a potable liquor.I’ll just take a nip of that cake.He had a nip of whiskey.

Synonyms

• nibble of food

Diminutive of nipple.

Noun

1. (vulgar) A nipple, usually of a woman.

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
4. 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

1. A playful bite.The puppy gave his owner’s finger a nip.
2. A pinch with the nails or teeth.
3. 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.
4. A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.
5. A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
6. A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
7. A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
8. (nautical) A short turn in a rope. Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying equality in a contest. U.S.
9. The place of intersection where one roll touches another in papermaking.
10. (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

• nip and tuck
• nip in the bud

Verb

1. To make a quick, short journey or errand; usually roundtrip.Why don’t you nip down to the grocer’s for some milk?

Anagrams

• NPI
• pin, PIN