nip

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To seize and pinch or bite: The fish nipped the wader's toe.
2. v. To remove or sever by pinching or snipping: nipped off the plant leaf.
3. v. To bite or sting with the cold; chill.
4. v. To check or cut off the growth or development of: a conspiracy that was nipped in the bud by the police. See Synonyms at blast.
5. v. Slang To snatch up hastily.
6. v. Slang To take (the property of another) unlawfully; steal.
7. v. Chiefly British To move quickly; dart.
8. n. The act or an instance of seizing or pinching.
9. n. A pinch or snip that cuts off or removes a small part: He gave a small nip to each corner of the cloth.
10. n. The small bit or portion so removed: There were nips of construction paper all over the child's table.
11. n. A sharp, stinging quality, as of frosty air.
12. n. Severely sharp cold or frost.
13. n. A cutting remark.
14. n. A sharp, biting flavor; a tang: the nip of Mexican salsa.
15. n. A small amount of liquor.
16. v. To sip (alcoholic liquor) in small amounts: had been nipping brandy.
17. v. To take a sip or sips of alcoholic liquor: nips all day long.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To press sharply and tightly between two surfaces or points, as of the fingers; pinch.
2. Figuratively, to press closely upon; affect; concern.
3. To sever or break the edge or end of by pinching; pinch (off) with the ends of the fingers or with pincers or nippers: with off.
4. To blast, as by frost; destroy; check the growth or vigor of.
5. To affect with a sharp tingling sensation; benumb.
6. To bite; sting.
7. To satirize keenly; taunt sarcastically; vex.
8. To steal, pilfer; purloin.
9. To snatch up hastily.
10. to tie or secure a cable with nippers to the messenger.
11. n. The act of compressing between two opposing surfaces or points, as in seizing and compressing a bit of the skin between the fingers; a pinch.
12. n. A closing in of ice about a vessel so as to press upon or crush her.
13. n. A pinch which severs or removes a part; a snipping, biting, or pinching off.
14. n. A small bit of anything; as much as may be nipped off by the finger and thumb.
15. n. A check to growth from a sudden blasting or attack from frost or cold; a sharp frost-bite which kills the tips or ends of a plant or leaf.
16. n. A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
17. n. A thief; a pickpocket.
18. n. In coal-mining, a thinning of a bed of coal by a gradual depression of the roof, so that the seam sometimes almost entirely disappears for a certain distance, while the beds above and below are only slightly, or not at all, affected in a similar maimer. Also called a want.
19. n. Naut.:
20. n. A short turn in a rope.
21. n. The part of a rope at the place bound by a seizing or caught by jamming.
22. n. In the wool-Combing machine, a mechanism the action of which is closely analogous to that of the human hand in grasping. Its function is to draw the wool in bunches from the fallers and present it to the comb.
23. To take a dram or nip. See nip, n.
24. n. A sip or small draught, especially of some strong spirituous beverage: as, a, nip of brandy.
25. n. A short steep ascent.
26. n. A hill or mountain.
27. n. A turnip.
28. n. Mist; darkness. This appears to be the sense in the following passage; Skeat takes it as a particular use of nip, ‘piercing or biting cold,’ with a secondary choice for the explanation ‘a hill or peak.’ See nip.
29. In cricket:
30. To catch neatly: said of a fielder.
31. To break sharply: said of a bowled ball.
32. n. The place of contact between two cylinders, rollers, or bowls.
33. n. To take a new hold; refresh the memory.
34. n. A low cliff cut in the border of land near the sea.
35. To cut a low cliff in (the border of the land) by wave action.

Wiktionary

1. n. A small quantity of something edible or a potable liquor.
2. n. vulgar A nipple, usually of a woman.
3. v. To make a quick, short journey or errand; usually roundtrip.
4. v. To catch and enclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
5. v. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
6. v. To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
7. v. To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt.
8. n. A playful bite.
9. n. A pinch with the nails or teeth.
10. n. Briskly cold weather.
11. n. A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.
12. n. A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
13. n. A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
14. n. A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
15. n. The place of intersection where one roll touches another in papermaking.
16. n. A pickpocket.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; a dram.
2. v. To catch and inclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
3. v. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
4. v. Hence: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
5. v. To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt.
6. n. A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching.
7. n. A pinch with the nails or teeth.
8. n. A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
9. n. A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
10. n. A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
11. n. (Naut.) A short turn in a rope.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a small sharp bite or snip
2. v. give a small sharp bite to
3. v. squeeze tightly between the fingers
4. n. a tart spicy quality
5. n. (offensive slang) offensive term for a person of Japanese descent
6. n. the taste experience when a savoury condiment is taken into the mouth
7. n. a small drink of liquor
8. v. sever or remove by pinching or snipping
9. n. the property of being moderately cold