nippen

An expressive variant of nijpen (“to pinch”), in the sense of squeezing the lips.^[1]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpən

nippen

1. to sip, take a nip

Borrowed from German Low German and Central German dialects, from Middle Low German nippen, variant of nîpen, from Old Saxon *hnīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *hnīpan (“to pinch”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪpən/, [ˈnɪpən], [ˈnɪpm̩]

• Audio:

  (file)

nippen (weak, third-person singular present nippt, past tense nippte, past participle genippt, auxiliary haben)

1. to sip; to take a nip

   Er nippte gelangweilt an seinem Longdrink.

   He boredly sipped from his long drink.

   • a. 1827, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Nett und niedlich”, in Epigrammatisch:

     Aber etwas fehlt dir noch; / Küssest mit so spitzen Lippen, / Wie die Tauben Wasser nippen; / Allzu zierlich bist du doch.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Nippflut

• “nippen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “nippen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “nippen” in Duden online
• “nippen” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.