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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



... said reflectively: "'Twas the first load of men did the business. 'Twas nip and tuck down to the last foot if we could stop it on that side. I tell you, ten minutes of that kind o' work takes about ten years off'n a man's life. We'd just about gi'n up when we saw 'em coming. I bet I won't be no gladder to see ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield
... little slap at me! That is never wanting. [offers a cup to Martinel.] You will take a small cup, won't you, M. Martinel, and a nip of old brandy with it? I know your tastes. We will take good care ...
— A Comedy of Marriage & Other Tales • Guy De Maupassant
... to the very last it was nip-and-tuck between 'em," said Boswell. "Apollyon and Delilah won it with one hole up, and they got that on the put. They'd have halved the hole if Medusa's back hair hadn't wiggled loose and bitten her caddie just as she ...
— The Enchanted Typewriter • John Kendrick Bangs
... it is that money we must have, and that soon. We must take whatever comes the readiest, for we cannot afford to wait. I know that the immediate often swallows up the ultimate; that the five thousand rupees of today may nip in the bud the fifty thousand rupees of tomorrow. But I must accept the penalty. Have I not often twitted Nikhil that they who walk in the paths of restraint have never known what sacrifice is? It is we greedy folk who have to sacrifice ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore
... inoffensive, good old fellow, nobody denied that, and certain young "fellers" who had shaved the tail of Jake's mare the night previous, and set her loose, now felt sort of sorry for the deed. The editor of the "Argus of Freedom" came down to the "grocery," to get his morning "nip," heard the news, went back to his office, "set up" Jake's obituary notice, pitched in a few sorrowful phrases, and then put his paper to press; that afternoon, the whole edition, of some two hundred copies, were distributed around among the subscribers and "dead heads," and Jake Hinkle ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley


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