nip

1. 1.

   squeeze tightly between the fingers

   “He pinched her behind”

   “She squeezed the bottle”

   Synonymspinchsqueezetwingetweettwitch

   Broadergrip

   Narrowergoosetweak
2. 2.

   give a small sharp bite to

   “The Queen's corgis always nip at her staff's ankles”

   Broaderbite
3. 3.

   sever or remove by pinching or snipping

   “nip off the flowers”

   Synonymsnip offclipsnipsnip off

   Broadercut

Other forms of nip

plural

nips·

past tense or participle

nipped

present participle

nipping

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about nip

What does nip mean?

nip means "a small drink of liquor". That is the primary sense; the word has 9 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in nip?

nip has 1 syllable: nip. In IPA it is /ˈnɪp/.

What is another word for nip?

Close synonyms include shot, Jap, relish, flavor, flavour. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is nip a common word?

nip is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.