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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



... set at any angle to the shaft and yet to revolve and be driven by it without throwing any undue strain upon the working parts. The piece, wound upon the ordinary batch shell, is placed upon the running-off center, D; it is led off over the rails, EE, and then downward to the nip of the bands and pulleys, AA. As explained, the selvages are here gripped between the bands and stretching pulleys, the rims of which are wider apart at the back than the front, and thus, in being conveyed underneath, the piece is suitably stretched. Leaving ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883 • Various

... said, holding up a kit bag. "Wot's it now, Gov'nor?—the railway station? Good enough. Shall I nip off ahead or keep with you till ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... that we shall prevent him growing. You know, because he was better skilled in chemistry, knew how to manufacture gunpowder, that the Spaniard destroyed the Aztec. May not we, who are possessing ourselves of the world and its resources, and gathering to ourselves all its knowledge, may not we nip the Slav ere he grows a ...
— A Daughter of the Snows • Jack London

... and asked him why he didn't put his case in the hands of some Washington attorney, who could be on the ground and attend to it. He decided that he would, so he wrote to one of these philanthropists whom we will call Fitznoodle. I give him the nom de plume of Fitznoodle to nip a $20,000 libel suit in the bud. Well, Fitznoodle sent back some blanks for the claimant to sign, by which he bound himself, his heirs, executors, representatives and assigns, firmly by these presents to pay to said Fitznoodle, the necessary fees for postage, ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... weapon, strike his ready hanger into his throat. But expert as the hunter might be, it was not often the formidable brute was so quickly dispatched; for he would sometimes seize the spear in his powerful teeth, and nip it off like a reed, or, coming full tilt on his enemy, by his momentum and weight bear him to the earth, ripping up, with a horrid gash, his leg or side, and before the writhing hunter could draw his knife, the infuriated beast would plunge his snout in the wound, and rip, with ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton


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