nip
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: nĭp
ipa: /nɪp/
rhymes: -ɪp
Forms: form: nips
form: nipping
form: nipped
form: nipped
form: gnip
form: knip
Etymology: From late Middle English nippen, probably of Low German or Dutch origin, probably a byform of earlier *knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), from Middle Low German knîpen, from Old Saxon *knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *knīpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *knīpaną (“to pinch”).
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.
Senses: examples: text: May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell, Down, down, and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such a traitress.
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Merlin and Vivien:
glosses: To catch and enclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
examples: text: The small shoots ... must be nipt off.
ref: 1716, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry:
glosses: To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
glosses: To benumb [e.g., cheeks, fingers, nose] by severe cold.
glosses: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
examples: text: And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:
glosses: To annoy, as by nipping.
glosses: To taunt.
glosses: To squeeze or pinch.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:
text: The twelfth is a beau-trap, if a cull he does meet, / He nips all his cole, and turns him into the street.
ref: 1712, J. Shirley, “The Black Procession”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, verse 4, published 1896, page 38:
synonyms: word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
qualifier: thieves' cant
glosses: To steal; especially to cut a purse.
examples: text: He had never expected to fling the soldier, or to be flung by Flea. “One nips or is nipped,” he thought, “and never knows beforehand. …"
ref: 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, XII [Uniform ed., p. 136]
glosses: To affect [one] painfully; to cause physical pain.'
Derived terms: nip at