pip
/pɪp/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms the pip pips pipping pipped
- noun Any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza.
- noun (humorous, dated) A disease, malaise or depression in humans.
- noun (obsolete) A pippin, seed of any kind.
- noun (UK) A seed inside certain fleshy fruits, such as the stone (pit) of a stonefruit or the smaller seeds of an orange or apple. “Apple pips are edible, but don't have a pleasant taste.”
- noun (US, colloquial) Something or someone excellent, of high quality.
- noun (UK, dated, World War I, signalese) P in RAF phonetic alphabet.
- verb (transitive) To remove the pips from. “Peel and pip the grapes.”
- noun One of the spots or symbols on a playing card, domino, die, etc.
- noun (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.
- noun A spot; a speck.
- noun A spot of light or an inverted V indicative of a return of radar waves reflected from an object; a blip.
- noun A piece of rhizome with a dormant shoot of the lily of the valley plant, used for propagation
- verb (transitive) To get the better of; to defeat by a narrow margin. “He led throughout the race but was pipped at the post.”
- verb (transitive) To hit with a gunshot. “The hunter managed to pip three ducks from his blind.”
- verb (intransitive) To peep, to chirp.
- verb (ornithology) To make the initial hole during the process of hatching from an egg.
- noun 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.
- noun (finance, currency trading) The smallest price increment between two currencies in foreign exchange (forex) trading.
- proper noun A diminutive form of the given names Philip, Phillip, Pippi and Philippa.
- proper noun (UK, military, World War I, slang) The 1914 Star or 1914–15 Star medal.
Synonyms
spot pip to the post stroke blip radar target shoot hit worst mop up whip rack up
Etymology
From Middle English pippe, from Middle Dutch pip, from post-classical Latin pipita, from Latin pītuīta (“mucus, phlegm, head cold”). Doublet of pituita.
Apparently representing a shortened form of pippin, from Middle English pipin, from Old French pepin (“a seed”) (French pépin, q.v.).
Origin uncertain; perhaps related to Etymology 2, above.
Imitative.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A contagious disease of fowls, characterized by hoarseness, discharge from the nostrils and eyes, and an accumulation of mucus in the mouth, forming a "scale" on the tongue. By some the term pip is restricted to this last symptom, the disease being called roup by them.
- noun A seed, as of an apple or orange.
- noun One of the conventional figures or "spots" on playing cards, dominoes, etc. Addison.
- verb To cry or chirp, as a chicken; to peep.
Etymology [OE. pippe, D. pip, or F. pépie; from LL. pipita, fr. L. pituita slime, phlegm, rheum, in fowls, the pip. Cf. Pituite.]
Etymology [Formerly pippin, pepin. Cf. Pippin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pip”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details