Adjacent Words

Nipping definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NIP'PING, ppr. Pinching; pinching off; biting off the end; cropping; clipping; blasting; killing.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: capable of wounding; "a barbed compliment"; "a biting aphorism"; "pungent satire" [syn: barbed, biting, nipping, pungent, mordacious]
2: pleasantly cold and invigorating; "crisp clear nights and frosty mornings"; "a nipping wind"; "a nippy fall day"; "snappy weather" [syn: crisp, frosty, nipping, nippy, snappy]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1547 sharp, chilling <a nipping wind> • nippingly adverb

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nip Nip, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nipped, less properly Nipt; p. pr. & vb. n. Nipping.] [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.] 1. To catch and inclose or compress tightly between two surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed; to pinch; to close in upon. May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell, Down, down, and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such a traitress. --Tennyson. 2. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip. The small shoots . . . must be nipped off. --Mortimer. 3. Hence: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy. 4. To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt. And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip. --Spenser. To nip in the bud, to cut off at the verycommencement of growth; to kill in the incipient stage.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nipping Nip"ping, a. Biting; pinching; painful; destructive; as, a nipping frost; a nipping wind.