English

Proper noun

Pip

1. A diminutive form of the given names Philip, Phillip, and Philippa.
   • 1861 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 1:

     My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

Anagrams

• PPI

English

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. Any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza. [from the 15th c.]
2. (humorous) Of humans, a disease, malaise or depression.
   • D. H. Lawrence, letter to Edward Garnett

     I've got the pip horribly at present.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV:

     With this deal Uncle Tom's got on with Homer Cream, it would be fatal to risk giving [Mrs Cream] the pip in any way.

Derived terms

• like a chicken with the pip

Etymology 2

Apparently representing a shortened form of pippin, from Middle English pipin, from Old French pepin ‎(“a seed”) (French pépin).

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. (obsolete) A pippin.
2. (Britain) A seed inside certain fleshy fruits (compare stone/pit), such as a peach, orange, or apple.
3. (US, colloquial) Something or someone excellent, of high quality.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 612:

     She sure is a pip, that one. You need company?

4. (Britain, dated, WW I, signalese) P in RAF phonetic alphabet

Derived terms

• pip emma

Translations

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain, perhaps related to Etymology 2, above.

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. One of the spots or symbols on a playing card, domino, die, etc.
2. (military, public service) One of the stars worn on the shoulder of a uniform to denote rank, e.g. of a soldier or a fireman.
3. A spot; a speck.
4. A spot of light or an inverted V indicative of a return of radar waves reflected from an object; a blip.
5. A piece of rhizome with a dormant shoot of the lily of the valley plant, used for propagation

Synonyms

• (symbol on playing card etc): spot

Translations

Verb

pip ‎(third-person singular simple present pips, present participle pipping, simple past and past participle pipped)

1. To get the better of; to defeat by a narrow margin

   He led throughout the race but was pipped at the post.

2. To hit with a gunshot

   The hunter managed to pip three ducks from his blind.

Etymology 4

Imitative.

Verb

pip ‎(third-person singular simple present pips, present participle pipping, simple past and past participle pipped)

1. To peep, to chirp
2. (avian biology) To make the initial hole during the process of hatching from an egg

Etymology 5

Imitative.

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. 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 if he is to continue his call.
   • 1982 John Banville, The Newton Letter

     I could clearly hear the frequent cataclysms of the upstairs lavatory, and my day began with the pips for the morning news in Charlotte Lawless's kitchen.

Synonyms

• (electronic sound, counting down seconds): stroke

Translations

Etymology 6

Abbreviation of percentage in point.

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. (finance, currency trading) The smallest price increment between two currencies in foreign exchange (forex) trading.
   • 2012, Abe Cofnas, The Forex Trading Course

     The set-and-forget trader is playing fundamental direction and is seeking very large moves of 150 to 300 pips.

Related terms

• pip to the post
• pip at the post
• pipsqueak
• give the pip to, give someone the pip

Anagrams

• PPI

Albanian

Etymology 1

A descriptive term, similar to German piepen and Latin pipīre.

Verb

pip ‎(first-person singular past tense pipa, participle pipur)

1. to peep, to chirp

Etymology 2

From Romance *pīpa, also present in Old French pipe, Italian pipa etc.

Noun

pip f (indefinite plural pipa, definite singular pipa, definite plural pipat)

1. sprout, shoot
2. pipe, tube

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pip/, [pʰib̥]

Noun

pip n (singular definite pippet, plural indefinite pip)

1. chirp, peep, tweet
2. bleep

Inflection

Noun

pip n

1. nonsense, gibberish, madness

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch pip ‎(“disease of poultry, also of people”), from post-classical Latin pipita, from Latin pītuīta ‎(“slime, head cold”).

Noun

pip m ‎(uncountable)

1. Pip (any of various respiratory diseases in birds, especially infectious coryza).
2. (humorous or colloquial) Of humans, a disease (particularly the common cold or the flu), malaise or depression.

Derived terms

• pips
• de pip krijgen

Lojban

Rafsi

pip

1. rafsi of plipe.

Swedish

Noun

pip n

1. squeak, beep

Declension

Verb

pip

1. imperative of pipa.

Volapük

Noun

pip ‎(plural pips)

1. pipe (for smoking)

Declension

Related terms

• smokön
• tabak