Category:Nip

Nip, n. Etym: [lg. & d. nippen to sip; akin to dan. nippe, g. Nippen.]

Defn: a sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; A dram.

Nip Nip, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nipped, less properly nipt; p. pr. & vb. n. Nipping.] Etym: [oe. nipen; cf. D. niipen to pinch, also knippen to Nip, clip, pinch, snap, knijpen to pinch, lg. knipen, g. kneipen, Kneifen, to pinch, cut off, nip, lith. knebti.]

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. Tennyson.

2. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges Of anything; to clip. The small shoots ... must be nipped off. Mortimer.

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. Spenser. To nip in the bud, to cut off at the verycommencement of growth; to Kill in the incipient stage.

Nip 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. Latimer.

6. (naut.)

Defn: a short turn in a rope. Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying Equality in a contest. [low, u.s.]