Nip
[nɪp]
Definition
(noun.) a small sharp bite or snip.
(noun.) a tart spicy quality.
(noun.) a small drink of liquor; 'he poured a shot of whiskey'.
(verb.) give a small sharp bite to; 'The Queen's corgis always nip at her staff's ankles'.
(verb.) sever or remove by pinching or snipping; 'nip off the flowers'.
Edited by Barrett--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; a dram.
(v. t.) To catch and inclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
(v. t.) To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
(v. t.) Hence: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
(v. t.) To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt.
(n.) A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.
(n.) A pinch with the nails or teeth.
(n.) A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
(n.) A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
(n.) A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
(n.) A short turn in a rope.
Checker: Rowena
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Pinch, compress, squeeze, gripe.[2]. Clip, cut off.[3]. Blast, bite, destroy, ruin.
n. [1]. Pinch, bite.[2]. Bit, small cut.[3]. [Low.] Dram, nipper, sip, drink.
Editor: Verna
Definition
v.t. to pinch: to press between two surfaces: to cut off the edge: to check the growth or vigour of: to destroy: to bite sting satirise:—pr.p. nip′ping; pa.t. and pa.p. nipped.—n. a pinch: a seizing or closing in upon: a cutting off the end: a blast: destruction by frost: (min.) a more or less gradual thinning out of a stratum: (naut.) a short turn in a rope the part of a rope at the place bound by the seizing or caught by jambing.—ns. Nip′-cheese a stingy fellow: (naut.) the purser's steward; Nip′per he who or that which nips: one of various tools or implements like pincers: one of a pair of automatically locking handcuffs: a chela or great claw as of a crab: the young bluefish: a boy who attends on navvies: (obs.) a thief: one of the four fore-teeth of a horse: (pl.) small pincers.—v.t. to seize (two ropes) together.—adv. Nip′pingly.—Nip in the bud to cut off in the earliest stage.
n. a sip esp. of spirits—also Nip′per (U.S.).—v.i. to take a dram.—n. Nip′perkin a small measure of liquor.
Checked by Clarice
Unserious Contents or Definition
Something bracing from without or within When felt in the air, it's a frost. When found in a glass, a life saver.
Editor: Roxanne
Examples
- He'd better nip his little passion in the bud, hadn't he? Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Mrs Yolland sat down opposite to him, and gave him his nip. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Our client wants me to look at some Italian gardens before we settle anything, and has asked me to nip over on the next boat. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- When it was done, he laid it aside and a dog walked sadly in and nipped it. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I dare say, if he had told me his doubts at the first I could have nipped them in the bud. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- If they had known the various tender passages which had been nipped in the bud, they would have had the immense satisfaction of saying, I told you so. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- He had nipped in the bud the possible meeting between Eustacia and her old lover this very night. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I've just heard of old Mrs. Mingott's stroke; and as I was on my way to the house I saw you turning down this street and nipped after you. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- I leaned against a gate, and looked into an empty field where no sheep were feeding, where the short grass was nipped and blanched. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- She was like some rare flower grown for exhibition, a flower from which every bud had been nipped except the crowning blossom of her beauty. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Formerly, the opening machines were simply cylinders armed with spikes, to which the cotton was led through nipping rollers, and then delivered in a loose, fluffy condition. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Our native oak, as his partisans called him, was visited truly by a nipping winter. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- And then the lockjaw closes down and nips off a couple of the last syllables--but they taste good. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Inputed by Isabella