Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a nipping manner; with bitter sarcasm; sarcastically.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a nipping manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a nipping manner.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

nipping +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • All the windows were open, and the east wind came in at its will, nippingly cold if airy.

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880. Various

  • Leith Links, sweeping thin and nippingly across shining sands left bare by a receding tide; down by the rippling water-line, as the sun of a late spring day neared his setting, clamouring gulls bickered noisily over the possession of some fishy dainty.

    Stories of the Border Marches Jeanie Lang

  • It was nippingly cold outside, and the warm restaurant proved a delightful contrast.

    The Governess Julie Mathilde Lippmann

  • Tess shivered a little as the frost-laden air bit nippingly at her ears.

    The Secret of the Storm Country Grace Miller White 1912

  • Others, scattered about the hillsides and in the arroyos, grazed nippingly at the sparse bunch-grass, moving quickly from clump to clump.

    Overland Red A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • The weather for a month has been perfect, the sky an extravagance of blue, the air lively enough, the nights cool, nippingly cool. and the whole ancient greyness lighted with an irresistible smile.

    Italian Hours Henry James 1879

  • "Nay, then, 't is a shame to see Christian men so served, and they so scarce a commodity in these parts," declared Helen Billington to her neighbor Mistress Hopkins, who nippingly replied, --

    Standish of Standish A story of the Pilgrims 1862

  • MRS. DALE (pinching her husband's arm very nippingly).

    My Novel — Volume 01 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • MRS. DALE (pinching her husband's arm very nippingly).

    My Novel — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • At the moment of which I am now about to speak -- we were drawing close on toward the meridian of the Horn, but well to the south of it; and the weather was what sailors call "dirty" -- a dark, scowling sky overhead, charged with sleet and rain squalls that, when we ran into them, lashed us and stung the skin like whips; the atmosphere was nippingly raw, and thick enough to veil and blot out everything at a distance of more than four miles; and the wind was blowing so fresh from the southward that the men had at length been compelled to unwillingly turn out and snug the brig down to double-reefed topsails, with the mainsail stowed.

    The Castaways Harry Collingwood 1886

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