Word of the Day Archive
Friday May 18, 2012
pip \pip\
, verb:
1. To peep or chirp.
2. (Of a young bird) to break out from the shell.
3. To crack or chip a hole through (the shell), as a young bird.
Stone's watch pipped eight o'clock. He had curly hair the color of motor oil, and pale green eyes.
-- Jonathan Franzen, The Twenty-Seventh City
As Fiona's horn pipped, just beyond the cab's black fender.
-- William Gibson, Zero History
Pip is a variation on the word peep which arose in the 1600s. It comes from the Lithuanian word pỹpti which was originally imitative of a baby bird.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for pip
