Sip
Pronunciation
- enPR: sÄp, IPA: /sɪp/
- Rhymes: -ɪp
Origin
From Middle English sippen, probably cognate with Middle English sipen ("to seep"), from Old English sipian ("to seep").
Verb
- (transitive) To drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time.
- 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 5, A waiter brought his aperitif, which was a small scotch and soda, and as he sipped it gratefully he sighed.
‘Civilized,’ he said to Mr. Campion. ‘Humanizing.’ … ‘Cigars and summer days and women in big hats with swansdown face-powder, that's what it reminds me of.’ - 2013-08-03, Revenge of the nerds, Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
- (intransitive) To drink a small quantity.
- John DrydenShe raised it to her mouth with sober grace;
Then, sipping, offered to the next in place. - To taste the liquor of; to drink out of.
- John DrydenThey skim the floods, and sip the purple flowers.
- (Scotland, US, dated) Alternative form of seep