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Nip   /nɪp/   Listen
verb
Nip  v. t.  (past & past part. nipped, less properly nipt; pres. part. nipping)  
1.
To catch and inclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon. "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. "The small shoots... must be nipped off."
3.
Hence: 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. "And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip."
To nip in the bud, to cut off at the very commencement of growth; to kill in the incipient stage.


noun
Nip  n.  A sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; a dram.


Nip  n.  
1.
A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.
2.
A pinch with the nails or teeth.
3.
A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
4.
A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
5.
A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
6.
(Naut.) A short turn in a rope.
Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying equality in a contest; as, it was nip and tuck right to the last minute of play. (Low, U.S.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Nip" Quotes from Famous Books



... warrior with apprehension. What if he should bring his 'dare young misthress' and her friend into the atmosphere of stale tobacco after their lawful game? Wilkinson sat down despairingly and coughed. "I feel very like the least little nip," he said faintly, "but it's in my knapsack, and I will not enter that car of foul conspiracy again for all the knapsacks and ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell
... have a nip on it," Watson said to Witberg, as they left the courtroom; but that outraged person refused to lock arms and amble to the ...
— The Night-Born • Jack London
... far back from the street, and next to it was a deep, vacant lot at the very rear of which Job was aimlessly wandering about, pausing now and then to nip at the tender green blades that were pushing their way up through ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray
... the way it stands now. Mama is become No. 2; I have dropped from No. 4, and am become No. 5. Some time ago it used to be nip and tuck between me and the cats, but after the cats "developed" I didn't ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... active as cats, trotted, with a tinkle of bells, through the barred sunshine and shadow of the fragrant pine and cork woods. The road, turning inland, climbed steadily, the air growing lighter and fresher as the elevation increased—a nip in it testifying that January was barely yet out. And that nip justified the wearing of certain afore-mentioned myrtle-green, fur-trimmed pelisse, upon which Damaris' minor affections were, at this period, ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet


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