pip

• enPR: pĭp, IPA^(key): /pɪp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪp

From Middle English pippe, from Middle Dutch pip, from post-classical Latin pipita, from Latin pītuīta (“mucus, phlegm, head cold”). Doublet of pituita.

pip (plural pips)

1. Any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza. [from the 15th c.]
2. (humorous, dated) Of humans, a disease, malaise or depression.
   • 1912, D. H. Lawrence, letter to Edward Garnett

     I've got the pip horribly at present.

   • 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

     Fer, as the poit sez, me 'eart 'as got / The pip wiv yearnin' fer - I dunno wot.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV:

     With this deal Uncle Tom's got on with Homer Cream, it would be fatal to risk giving [Mrs Cream] the pip in any way.

   • 1980 August 16, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 5, page 22:

     So sorry that you caught the pip
     On our most recent northward trip
     But you'll be better soon I'm hopin'
     Cause with the mornings I'm not copin'
     Some nerve. Tell those nasty viruses to Bug off!

• like a chicken with the pip

Apparently representing a shortened form of pippin, from Middle English pipin, from Old French pepin (“a seed”) (French pépin).

pip (plural pips)

1. (obsolete) A pippin, seed of any kind.
   1. (UK) A seed inside certain fleshy fruits (compare stone/pit), such as a peach, orange, or apple.
      • 1995, John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft; 231), volume 1, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 134:

        On most of the shores of the ancient Mediterranean, before any historical record, the cultivated grape vine, Vitis vinifera Linn., was grown. Its relationship to the wild vine of Eurasia, Vitis silvestris Gmel., is uncertain. Its pips can mostly be distinguished from those of the wild vine, and have been found in Egypt and Syrian Hama from the fourth millennium BC, at Lachish and Jericho in the early Bronze, at Troy II during the Bronze, in the Peloponnesus from Early Helladic, in Crete from the Early Minoan.

      Apple pips are edible, but don't have a pleasant taste.

2. (US, colloquial) Something or someone excellent, of high quality.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 612:

     She sure is a pip, that one. You need company?

3. (British, dated, World War I, signalese) P in RAF phonetic alphabet.

• pip emma
• until the pips squeak

pip (third-person singular simple present pips, present participle pipping, simple past and past participle pipped)

1. (transitive) To remove the pips from.

   Peel and pip the grapes.

The insignia for captain in the British Army, which is decorated by 3 pips

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to Etymology 2, above.

pip (plural pips)

1. One of the spots or symbols on a playing card, domino, die, etc.
2. (military, public service) One of the stylised version of the Bath star worn on the shoulder of a uniform to denote rank, e.g. of a soldier or a fireman.
3. A spot; a speck.
4. A spot of light or an inverted V indicative of a return of radar waves reflected from an object; a blip.
5. A piece of rhizome with a dormant shoot of the lily of the valley plant, used for propagation

• (symbol on playing card etc): spot

pip (third-person singular simple present pips, present participle pipping, simple past and past participle pipped)

1. (transitive) To get the better of; to defeat by a narrow margin.

   Synonym: pip to the post

   He led throughout the race but was pipped at the post.

   • 2022 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham: Gunners show identity & direction in outstanding derby win”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Arteta faced much scrutiny after Spurs pipped the Gunners to Champions League football on the final day of last season, with opposite number Conte deservedly hailed for the transformation he had overseen in just a few months at the helm.

   • 2023 August 24, Rob Crilly, “Vivek Ramaswamy beats Ron DeSantis for best performance AND tops Donald Trump as the 'real winner' in poll of the Republican debate”, in Daily Mail‎:

     Some 28 percent said he was the best performer, pipping DeSantis by one point

2. (transitive) To hit with a gunshot.

   The hunter managed to pip three ducks from his blind.

• pip to the post
• pip at the post

Imitative.

pip (third-person singular simple present pips, present participle pipping, simple past and past participle pipped)

1. (intransitive) To peep, to chirp.
2. (ornithology) To make the initial hole during the process of hatching from an egg.

• pipsqueak

Imitative.

pip (plural pips)

1. One of a series of very short, electronically produced tones, used, for example, to count down the final few seconds before a given time or to indicate that a caller using a payphone needs to make further payment to continue the call.
   • 1982, John Banville, The Newton Letter:

     I could clearly hear the frequent cataclysms of the upstairs lavatory, and my day began with the pips for the morning news in Charlotte Lawless's kitchen.

• (electronic sound, counting down seconds): stroke

Abbreviation of percentage in point.

pip (plural pips)

1. (finance, currency trading) The smallest price increment between two currencies in foreign exchange (forex) trading.
   • 2015, Abe Cofnas, “Trading Styles and Strategies”, in The Forex Trading Course: A Self-study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader, 2nd edition, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part II (Timing the Trade with Technical Analysis), page 157:

     The set-and-forget trader is playing fundamental direction and is seeking very large moves of 150 to 300 pips. This trader doesn't want to sit and watch the screen but play the longer moves and forces behind forex.

• IPP, PPI

A descriptive term, similar to German piepen and Latin pipīre.

pip (aorist pipa, participle pipur)

1. to peep, to chirp

From Romance *pīpa, also present in Old French pipe, Italian pipa etc.

pip f (plural pipa, definite pipa, definite plural pipat)

1. sprout, shoot
2. pipe, tube

From Old Norse *pípa, from Proto-Germanic *pīpaną.

• IPA^(key): /pip/, [pʰib̥]

pip n (singular definite pippet, plural indefinite pip)

1. chirp, peep, tweet
2. bleep

pip n

1. (dated) nonsense, gibberish, madness
   • 2015, William Heinesen, Tårnet ved verdens ende: En poetisk mosaik-roman om den yngste ungdom, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:

     Sådan noget pip!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1975, Manfred Spliedt, Sådan en dum knægt:

     Sikke noget pip.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1975, Aksel Sandemose, Minner fra andre dager:

     Jeg var forarget over saadan noget Pip ...

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

From Middle Dutch pippe, pip, pips (“pip”, also “cold, flu”), ultimately from post-classical Latin pip(p)ita, from Latin pītuīta (“slime, head cold”).

The word was borrowed into West Germanic before the High German consonant shift as *pippit, whence Old High German pfipfiz and (Central German) pipz, *pippiz (modern German Pips, obsolete Pfipfs). In Dutch and Low German we should expect a form such as *pippet, which is not attested, however. One possibility is that these dialects borrowed the Central German form and the final s-sound was later reanalysed as the genitive suffix. Middle Dutch also had pipeye, from Old French pipie.

• IPA^(key): /pɪp/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: pip
• Rhymes: -ɪp

pip m (uncountable)

1. Pip (any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza).
2. (humorous or colloquial) Of humans, a disease (particularly the common cold or the flu), malaise or depression.

• pips
• de pip krijgen

Onomatopoeic.

pip

1. peep
2. squeak

pip n (definite singular pipet, indefinite plural pip, definite plural pipa)

1. peeping sound
2. act of producing a single peeping sound

Specialized use of Etymology 1.

pip m (definite singular pipen, indefinite plural pipar, definite plural pipane)

1. used in the expression ta pipen frå.
   1. resolve

pip m (definite singular pipen, indefinite plural pipar, definite plural pipane)

1. peepee, penis

• “pip” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Norse *pípa, from Proto-Germanic *pīpaną.

• Rhymes: -iːp

pip

1. beep

   Pip! Datorn pep.

   Beep! The computer beeped.

2. squeak, peep

   "Pip!" sa musen och fågelungen

   The mouse squeaked and the baby bird peeped

pip n

1. beep

   Datorn gav ifrån sig ett pip

   The computer emitted a beep

2. squeak, peep

   Pip hördes från mössen och fågelungarna

   Squeaks were heard from the mice and peeps from the baby birds

• pipa
• pippi

pip

1. imperative of pipa

Borrowed from French pipe and English pipe.

• IPA^(key): /pip/

pip (nominative plural pips)

1. pipe (for smoking)

• smokön
• tabak