NIP

A sip or small draught; esp., a draught of intoxicating liquor; a dram.

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.

To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip. The small shoots ... must be nipped off. Mortimer.

Hence: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.

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.

A seizing or closing in upon; a pinching; as, in the northern seas, the nip of masses of ice.

A pinch with the nails or teeth.

A small cut, or a cutting off the end.

A blast; a killing of the ends of plants by frost.

A biting sarcasm; a taunt. Latimer.

A short turn in a rope. Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying equality in a contest. [Low, U.S.]