Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

nip

/nɪp/ verb, noun, adjective

Forms nips nipping nipped gnip knip

  1. verb To catch and enclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon.
  2. verb To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
  3. verb To benumb [e.g., cheeks, fingers, nose] by severe cold.
  4. verb To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
  5. verb To annoy, as by nipping.
  6. verb To taunt.
  7. verb (Scotland, Northern England) To squeeze or pinch.
  8. verb (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) To steal; especially to cut a purse.
  9. noun A playful bite. “The puppy gave his owner’s finger a nip.”
  10. noun A pinch with the nails or teeth.
  11. noun Briskly cold weather. “There is a nip in the air. It is nippy outside.”
  12. noun A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching “the nip of masses of ice”
  13. noun A small cut, or a cutting off the end.
  14. noun (mining) A more or less gradual thinning out of a stratum.
  15. noun A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.
  16. noun A biting sarcasm; a taunt.
  17. noun A small amount of food or drink, (particularly) a small amount of liquor. “I’ll just take a nip of that cake.”
  18. noun (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A nipple, usually of a woman. “Did you manage to sneak a peek at her nips, bro?”
  19. verb (slang, vulgar) To have erect nipples.
  20. verb (informal) To make a quick, short journey or errand, usually a round trip. “Why don’t you nip down to the grocer’s for some milk?”

Synonyms

steal abduct abstract appropriate bag bandit bash and grab bone boost burgle burglarize borrow cheat chore commandeer confiscate convert cop cozen crib shot Jap relish flavor flavour sapidity savor savour smack tang

Etymology

From late Middle English nippen, probably of Low German or Dutch origin, probably a byform of earlier *knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), from Middle Low German knîpen, from Old Saxon *knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *knīpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *knīpaną (“to pinch”).
Related to Dutch nijpen, knijpen (“to pinch”), Danish nive (“pinch”); Swedish nypa (“pinch”); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen (“to pinch, cut off, nip”), Old Norse hnippa (“to prod, poke”); Lithuanian knebti.

Short for nipperkin, ultimately from Middle Low German nippen or Middle Dutch nipen ("to sip; nip"; > Dutch nippen). Compare also German nippen (“to sip; taste”).

Clipping of nipple.

Canada 1931.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; a dram.
  2. verb 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. verb To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
  4. noun A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.

Etymology [LG. & D. nippen to sip; akin to Dan. nippe, G. nippen.]

Etymology [OE. nipen; cf. D. niipen to pinch, also knippen to nip, clip, pinch, snap, knijpen to pinch, LG. knipen, G. kneipen, kneifen, to pinch, cut off, nip, Lith. knebti.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “nip”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details