nip

See also: Nip and NIP

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: nĭp, IPA^(key): /nɪp/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪp

Etymology 1

Short for nipperkin, ultimately from Middle Low German nippen or Middle Dutch nipen ("to sip; nip"; > Dutch nippen). Compare also German nippen (“to sip; taste”).

Noun

nip (plural nips)

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: (of food) nibble, (specifically of alcohol) a little of the creature; see also Thesaurus:drink

Etymology 2

Clipping of nipple.

Noun

nip (plural nips)

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

   Did you manage to sneak a peek at her nips, bro?

Etymology 3

From Middle English nippen, probably a byform of earlier *knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), related to Dutch nijpen, knijpen (“to pinch”), Danish nive (“pinch”); Swedish nypa (“pinch”); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen (“to pinch, cut off, nip”), Old Norse hnippa (“to prod, 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, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Merlin and Vivien:

     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^[1]:

     The small shoots ... must be nipt off.

3. To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
4. To annoy, as by nipping.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip.

5. To taunt.
6. (Scotland, Northern England) To squeeze or pinch.
7. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To steal; especially to cut a purse.
   • 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Bullen, Arthur Henry, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎^[2], volume 4, published 1885, Act 5, Scene 1, pages 128–129:

     Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

   • 1712, J. Shirley, “The Black Procession”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris‎^[3], verse 4, published 1896, page 38:

     The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet, / He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:steal

Noun

nip (plural nips)

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.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", chapter 118:

     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

   the nip of masses of ice

5. A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
6. (mining) A more or less gradual thinning out of a stratum.
7. A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
8. A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
9. (nautical) A short turn in a rope.
10. (papermaking) The place of intersection where one roll touches another
11. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A pickpocket.
    • 1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, Folio Society, published 2006, page 27:

      A novice nip, newly arrived in London, went one afternoon to the Red Bull in Bishopsgate, an inn converted to a playhouse.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pickpocket

Derived terms

• nip and tuck
• nip in the bud

 

Translations

playful bite

• Finnish: näykkäisy
• German: kneifen (de), zusammenquetschen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: mordiscar (pt)
• Swedish: nafs (sv) n

cold weather

• Finnish: pakkanen (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: nyp (sv) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} తుంచు (te) (tuñcu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

1. (informal) To make a quick, short journey or errand, usually a round trip.

   Why don’t you nip down to the grocer’s for some milk?

Anagrams

• NPI, PIN, pin

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Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *nepō, from Proto-Indo-European *népōts (“grandson, nephew”). Cognate to Latin nepos (“grandson”) and Sanskrit नपात् (nápat-, “grandson”). Reinforcement/influence or a borrowing from Latin is also possible.

Noun

nip m (plural nipër, definite nipi, definite plural nipërt)

1. nephew
2. grandson

Derived terms

• nipash
• nipçe
• nipëri
• nipoll

 

See also

• mbesë

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

nip

1. (deprecated template usage) first-person singular present indicative of nippen
2. (deprecated template usage) imperative of nippen

Anagrams

• pin