Other forms: nips, nipped, nipping
To nip is to pinch or bite sharply. The dog nipped him, nip it off, a sharp nip.
It is a small quick bite rather than an attack — puppies nip, and so do crabs. Nip in the bud means to stop something early before it can develop, from pruning. In British informal speech, nip means to go somewhere quickly: nip to the shops, nip out, nip round — which is one of the most useful and most British verbs there is. Note nippy, meaning both quick and cold; and a nip of whisky, meaning a small measure.
1verbnipTo pinch or bite sharply.
“The dog nipped him on the ankle and looked pleased.”
2verbsomewhereTo go somewhere quickly.
“I'm just nipping to the shop for some milk.”
nip is a small sharp bite or quick trip.
The word came from Middle Low German knipen, to pinch — the same root as the German kneifen. English lost the initial k, as it did in knife and knee, but kept the pinch.
Proto-Germanic
*knīpaną — to pinch
Proto-West Germanic
*knīpan
Old Saxon
*knīpan
Middle Low German
knîpen
Middle English
nippen
English, today
nip
From late Middle English nippen, probably of Low German - or Dutch - origin, probably a byform of earlier knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), from Middle Low German knîpen, from Old Saxon knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic knīpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic knīpaną (“to pinch”). Related to Dutch nijpen, knijpen (“to pinch”), Danish nive (“pinch”); Swedish nypa (“pinch”); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen (“to pinch, cut off, nip”), Old Norse hnippa (“to prod, poke”); Lithuanian knebti.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire