nip

Multiple Entries:
  nip    Nip  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
nip1

▶verb (nips, nipping, nipped)

• 1 pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply.

  ■ (nip something off) remove something by pinching or squeezing sharply.

• 2 (of the cold or frost) cause pain or harm to.

• 3 Brit. informal go quickly.

• 4 US informal steal or snatch.

▶noun

• 1 an act of nipping.

• 2 a feeling of biting cold.

– phrases
nip something in the bud suppress or destroy something at an early stage.

– origin ME: prob. of Low Ger. or Du. origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
nip2

▶noun a small quantity or sip of spirits. ▶verb (nips, nipping, nipped) take a sip of spirits.

– origin C18: prob. an abbrev. of the rare term nipperkin ‘small measure’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Nip/nɪp/

▶noun informal, offensive a Japanese person.

– origin 1940s: abbrev. of Nipponese, from Nippon (the Japanese name for Japan).