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Nip   /nɪp/   Listen
Nip

verb
(past & past part. nipped, less properly nipt; pres. part. nipping)
1.
Squeeze tightly between the fingers.  Synonyms: pinch, squeeze, tweet, twinge, twitch.  "She squeezed the bottle"
2.
Give a small sharp bite to.
3.
Sever or remove by pinching or snipping.  Synonyms: clip, nip off, snip, snip off.



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"Nip" Quotes from Famous Books



... warrior with apprehension. What if he should bring his 'dare young misthress' and her friend into the atmosphere of stale tobacco after their lawful game? Wilkinson sat down despairingly and coughed. "I feel very like the least little nip," he said faintly, "but it's in my knapsack, and I will not enter that car of foul conspiracy again for all the knapsacks and ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... have a nip on it," Watson said to Witberg, as they left the courtroom; but that outraged person refused to lock arms and amble to the ...
— The Night-Born • Jack London

... far back from the street, and next to it was a deep, vacant lot at the very rear of which Job was aimlessly wandering about, pausing now and then to nip at the tender green blades that were pushing their way up through ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray

... the way it stands now. Mama is become No. 2; I have dropped from No. 4, and am become No. 5. Some time ago it used to be nip and tuck between me and the cats, but after the cats "developed" I didn't ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... active as cats, trotted, with a tinkle of bells, through the barred sunshine and shadow of the fragrant pine and cork woods. The road, turning inland, climbed steadily, the air growing lighter and fresher as the elevation increased—a nip in it testifying that January was barely yet out. And that nip justified the wearing of certain afore-mentioned myrtle-green, fur-trimmed pelisse, upon which Damaris' minor affections were, at this period, ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet

... Tarnal I never did see yet! And if I hain't found the eighth wonder of Monarchical Creation, in finding Yew and Yewer fixins, solid and liquid, in a country where the people air not absolute Loo-naticks, I am Extra Double Darned with a nip and frizzle to the innermost grit! Wheerfore—Theer!—I la'af! I Dew, ma'arm. I la'af!" A calotype, or rather, literally, a speaking likeness, so true to the life as that, would be a trifle, we take it, beyond the mimetic powers and the keenly observant faculties even ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent

... gets into the servant-gall's bed-room sometimes at night, and nearly scares her to death under pretence he wants her candle; and sometimes jumps right on to the bed, and says she is handsome enough to eat, gives her a nip on the nose, sneezes on her with great contempt, and tells her she takes snuff. The fact is, he is hated everywhere he travels for his ugly behaviour as much as an Englishman, and that is a great deal more than sin ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... met there one day, as though he were a mere boy. He always felt, he once said in explanation, as though he might break them in shaking hands. They affected him like the presence of delicate china, and yet he could hold a baby deftly as an elephant can nip up a flower; and to see him turn over the pages of a delicate edition de luxe was a lesson in tenderness. For this big man who, as he would himself say, looked for all the world like a pirate, was as insatiable ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne

... in pomp or in splendour at the royal wedding. The trees were shedding their leaves, the bracken and the heather on the moors were brown, and winds that swept across the Carter Bar and down from the Cheviots had a winter nip in them; but indoors there was warmth enough, and all the gorgeousness and feasting and merrymaking that the most exacting of guests could desire for the marriage of a great king. The banquet after the wedding was followed by a masque. Musicians ushered into the banqueting ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang

... like her too well to deceive her. And she would expect devoted affection from a second husband. She is full of romantic ideas, school-girl theories of life which she was obliged to nip in the bud when she went to the altar with old Branston, but which have burst into flower now that ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... the floe as he spoke, and whirling like a top, it brought between it and the shore a fantastically-shaped berg, at least twenty-five feet high. The "nip" was but momentary; but the lofty shaft and its floating base cracked like a mirror, the huge fabric fell into ruins, and one of its pieces, striking the smaller boat, crushed ...
— Adrift in the Ice-Fields • Charles W. Hall

... yron whip, 235 Was wont him once to disple every day: And sharpe Remorse his hart did pricke and nip, That drops of blood thence like a well did play: And sad Repentance used to embay His bodie in salt water smarting sore, 240 The filthy blots of sinne to wash away. So in short space they did to health restore The man that would not live, ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... show you the way," said Mother Carey's chickens; "we cannot help you farther north. We don't like to get among the ice pack, for fear it should nip our toes; but the mollys ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V2 • Charles H. Sylvester

... dormant were cleared away as by magic and trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire, for there was a bitter nip in the air. The Lady Tiphaine had sunk back in her cushioned chair, and her long dark lashes drooped low over her sparkling eyes. Alleyne, glancing at her, noted that her breath came quick and short, and that her ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... corn alternating with bright green, a gaunt, low, wall-like range cutting off the entire circle of the horizon. The faint music of church bells from many a town miles away rode by on a wind with the nip of the mountain snows in it. But Prescott has already described the scene with a fidelity that seems uncanny from one who never beheld it except in ...
— Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras - Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond • Harry A. Franck

... bit brighter now. Encouraged by the aspect, and possibly the cheers of the Scranton fans, "K.K." put one over second that allowed Hugh to reach third, no attempt being made to nip ...
— The Chums of Scranton High Out for the Pennant • Donald Ferguson

... have my hands free," he says, and straps the camera and the golf-clubs on to himself. "Then if you nip out and get a porter I can hand the bags out to him through ...
— The Sunny Side • A. A. Milne

... reference to her propensity to get exceedingly worked up upon a subject of very little general interest, she would say, "The great point is, not to start her off, and not to give her a chance to start herself off. A little perspicacity will soon tell you what subject to nip in the bud, or when to talk as hard and fast as you can ...
— The Rhodesian • Gertrude Page

... one", the Master of Balliol remarked, "though 'Surgeon' would perhaps be the mot juste"; and thus at last Hogarth donned cap-and-tassel, though not Frankl's—a livery which drew from Harris the reflection: "Sweet beauty!—in his mortarboard". The nip upon the brow of the college-cap peak resembled the nip of the Scotch prison-cap, awaking memories: but the symbolism ...
— The Lord of the Sea • M. P. Shiel

... side of the hearth; a large three-cornered chair covered with stamped and gilded leather was drawn up to the fireside, the Squire's favourite seat on an autumn or winter afternoon. The chair was empty now, but, stretched at full length before the blazing logs, lay the Squire's chosen companion, Nip, a powerful liver-coloured pointer; and beside him in equally luxurious rest, reclined Argus, Vixen's mastiff. There was a story about Vixen and the mastiff, involving the only incident in that young lady's life the recollection whereof ...
— Vixen, Volume I. • M. E. Braddon

... blacks during the last thirty years would be impossible, but those which stand out first and foremost have been Black Boy, King Pippin, Kaffir Boy, Bayswater Swell, Kensington King, Marland King, Black Prince, Hatcham Nip, Walkley Queenie, Viva, Gateacre Zulu, Glympton King Edward, and ...
— Dogs and All About Them • Robert Leighton

... bow for the water to grip, the knifelike stem would sheer into it, and the gently expanding sides would shoulder it aside with scarcely any resistance, leaving it to close in again aft about her stern-post with a nip that would add to her speed, just as one may make a nut spring from one's fingers by merely pressing upon it. And she would be a good sea-boat, too, for the bow flared out over the water in such a fashion as to lift her over any sea, however steep. ...
— A Middy of the King - A Romance of the Old British Navy • Harry Collingwood

... seasonable nip to the air, but the sun rose warm and bright. There was no snow, and by early afternoon clouds of dust were rising on every trail leading to the Y.D. The old ranchers and their wives drove in buckboards, and one or ...
— Dennison Grant - A Novel of To-day • Robert Stead

... 'ere 'is lordship gits a grip Fair on me finger-give it quite a nip! An' when I tugs, 'e won't let go 'is hold! 'Angs on like that! An' 'im not ...
— The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke • C. J. Dennis

... look forward to accompanying him upon a harpooning expedition, when the river is lower. His father was killed by a bull hippo that he had harpooned; the infuriated animal caught the unfortunate hunter in his jaws, and with one nip disembowelled him before his son's eyes. Accidents are constantly occurring in this dangerous sport, as the hunters are so continually in the water that they are exposed, like baits, to the attacks of crocodiles. During the last season one of the sheik's party was killed; several men were ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... cat seized the old mouse, and killed three or four of the little ones. The young cat seized hold of one, and wanted to play with it, but it slipped into the hole and she could see no more of it. The other little mouse was running away as fast as it could, but Puss sprang at it and gave it a nip which made it ...
— The Life and Adventures of Poor Puss • Lucy Gray

... well-nigh a hundred feet in height—spray which the wild wind caught and blew in pellets of salty foam far up the little village street. Helmsley was now kept a prisoner indoors,—he had not sufficient strength to buffet with a gale, or to stand any unusually sharp nip of cold,—so he remained very comfortably by the side of the fire, making baskets, which he was now able to turn out quickly with quite an admirable finish, owing to the zeal and earnestness with which he set himself to the work. Mary's business in the winter months ...
— The Treasure of Heaven - A Romance of Riches • Marie Corelli

... lore that he had already obtained for the ears of his kinsfolk in the country. A general laugh, at the expense of the admiring Pardon succeeded. Nightingale bestowed a knowing wink on one or two of his familiars, and, profiting by the occasion, "to freshen his nip," as he quaintly styled swallowing a pint of rum and water, he continued his narrative by saying, in a sort ...
— The Red Rover • James Fenimore Cooper

... their time among the Coral, their food being the living tips of the Coral "branches," which they nip off with fine, sharp teeth. Others have teeth like millstones, fit for crushing the hard Coral, and eating the fleshy body of ...
— Within the Deep - Cassell's "Eyes And No Eyes" Series, Book VIII. • R. Cadwallader Smith

... is nip and tuck between wind and water in Holland. Let us sit down here on the canal bank, in the sunshine, and I will tell you what hard work has to be done to keep this good land of ours. And it is a good land! We should be thankful for it! Just see ...
— The Dutch Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... it got so that Bob couldn't live with her any longer. She simply wouldn't puritanize. The nearest he ever got her to saying 'good' was when she said it with only one 'o,' and then as prefix to 'dammit.' So he decided the only way to reform her was to murder her. She managed to nip a piece out of his hand while he was doing it, however, and he's had the hump all day because he fell from grace and said something he'd oughtn't to. Yes, sir; we're a queer mess of Puritans. Look at us. Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Jews, infidels, Theosophists,—even ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... door behind you, Hammie; there's more than a nip to these December gales. I' faith, how the ...
— A Warwickshire Lad - The Story of the Boyhood of William Shakespeare • George Madden Martin

... break the silence that followed. He asked me if I had any brandy on board. He said he felt he should like just a nip of brandy before going to bed. That is one of the chief charms of Jephson's stories: they always make you feel you ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome

... tschee! tschee! So I shall eat them up, you see! Hi, a nip here! and ho, a nip there! Bless me, mistress, how sweet they are! Merrily! Merrily! Tschee! tschee! tschee! Bless the lady who ...
— Poems of the Heart and Home • Mrs. J.C. Yule (Pamela S. Vining)

... Satan. He picked out one of the white things and fled barking after it. It was a little fellow that he was after, but little as he was, Satan might never have caught up, had not the sheep got tangled in some brush. Satan danced about him in mad glee, giving him a playful nip at his wool and springing back to give him another nip, and then away again. Plainly, he was not going to bite back, and when the sheep struggled itself tired and sank down in a heap, Satan came close ...
— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

... born, then. Oh, here we are at the bridge. I'm going to shut my eyes tight. I'm always afraid going over bridges. I can't help imagining that perhaps just as we get to the middle, they'll crumple up like a jack-knife and nip us. So I shut my eyes. But I always have to open them for all when I think we're getting near the middle. Because, you see, if the bridge DID crumple up I'd want to SEE it crumple. What a jolly rumble it makes! I always like the rumble part of it. Isn't it splendid ...
— Anne Of Green Gables • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... soone as you haue piled vp your Hoppe-poales, dry and close, then you shall about mid-Nouember following throw downe your hils, and lay all your rootes bare, that the sharpenesse of the season may nip them, and keepe them from springing too earely: you shall also then bring into the garden olde Cow-dunge, which is at least two yeeres olde, for no new dunge is good, and this you shall lay in some great heape in some conuenient place of the garden vntill Aprill, at which time, after you haue wound ...
— The English Husbandman • Gervase Markham

... admixture of Buddhistic and Brahmanic ideas. For this reason we take a little more space, not to cite from the Lotus or the grotesque Lalita Vistara,[68] but to illustrate Buddhism at its best. Fausboell, who has translated the dialogue that follows, thinks that in the Suttas of the Sutta-nip[a]ta there is a reminiscence of a stage of Buddhism before the institution of monasteries, while as yet the disciples lived as hermits. The collection is at least very primitive, although we doubt ...
— The Religions of India - Handbooks On The History Of Religions, Volume 1, Edited By Morris Jastrow • Edward Washburn Hopkins

... delivered these letters to his friend, he said his father had received an anonymous letter, and "What I want you for is to put these in the post-office in order to nip this silly affair ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... worker, we see that, in order to carry this power right on through a long life, proper diet is of great importance. Also many good mental workers are more sensitive than ordinary men: they are more easily destroyed by strong drink or opium. The nip of brandy, the soothing draught, are terrible dangers to such. Instances of brain power continued far into old age are always lessons in plainness of diet and temperance. One such temperate man will ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk

... close to the wires. Considering the amount of excitement the entertainment did not last long; the rats were turned out into the arena, where Topper pounced upon them one after the other with a nip and a shake which was at once fatal. In a couple of minutes there were six fewer rats in the world, and Topper was extremely anxious to diminish the number still further. Doctor Johnson, the compiler of the dictionary, said he had never in his life had as many peaches and ...
— Dr. Jolliffe's Boys • Lewis Hough

... Blunt. "To-day's Tuesday; and it's this afternoon that the business is to be pulled off. The thing to do is to hike for McGurvin's and nip the affair in the bud. Mac is on the side of the opposition, and so is Sam, and Turkeyfoot, and the flashily dressed juniper. That makes four, Merriwell, and there are only you and Clancy to see this game through. ...
— Frank Merriwell, Junior's, Golden Trail - or, The Fugitive Professor • Burt L. Standish

... she was married to a farming lad. There never was a brawer pair in the kirk, than on that day when they gaed there first as man and wife. My heart was proud, and it pleased the Lord to chastise my pride—to nip my happiness, even in the bud. The very next day he got his arm crushed. It never got well again; and he fell into a decay, and died in the winter, leaving my Mary far on in the road to ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt

... what we have been doing, and we seldom now have to think of discipline. If we see signs of carelessness, we nip them in the bud. One must discriminate between a moment's thoughtlessness in a young person and the beginning of a wrong library habit. That may not seem clearly put. A firm, steady glance in his ...
— Library Work with Children • Alice I. Hazeltine

... where my late uncle had given us reason to suppose some good sealing ground might be met with; but I did not hope to see you this morning. You observe our position, Captain Gar'ner; there is every prospect of a most awful nip!" ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... rum jar and gave each a nip and passed around some fags, the old reliable Woodbines. The other prisoners looked their gratitude, but the big fellow said in English, "Thank you, sir, the rum is excellent and I appreciate it, ...
— Over The Top • Arthur Guy Empey

... rider, too. He's more graceful than Mac, I think, but not quite so good on tricks. It will be nip and tuck." ...
— Wyoming, a Story of the Outdoor West • William MacLeod Raine

... lenses find nothing? I have some doubts as to whether ants are really shut out of many flowers by hairs pointing downwards in a fringe and similar contrivances. The ant has a singularly powerful pair of mandibles: put one between your shirt and skin and try; the nip you will get will astonish you. With these they can shear off the legs or even the head of another ant in battle. I cannot see, therefore, why, if they wished, they could not nip off this fringe of hairs, or even sever ...
— Field and Hedgerow • Richard Jefferies

... of that first walk down the mountain, at his great mother's heels, had been laid to sleep at the back of his curiously occupied brain. He had no understanding of the fierce restlessness, the vague longing, which from time to time, and especially when the autumn frosts began to nip and tingle, would take possession of him, moving him almost to hatred of even his special friends, the manager ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts

... shiftily and reaching for the inside pocket of his overcoat). I'll be havin' a nip now we're alone, and that cacklin' hen gone. I'm feelin' sick in the pit of the stomach. (He pulls out a pint ...
— The Straw • Eugene O'Neill

... the neck of his cow pony, which reached round playfully and pretended to nip his leg. They understood each other, and were now making the best of a very unpleasant situation. Since morning they had been lost on the desert. The heat of midday had found them plowing over sandy wastes. The declining sun had ...
— A Texas Ranger • William MacLeod Raine

... corner of the wharf. But here was a stern order to exile, and one that he knew must be obeyed. So, with a wary eye open for the gleam of brass buttons, he began his retreat toward a rural refuge. A few days in the country need not necessarily prove disastrous. Beyond the possibility of a slight nip of frost, there was no formidable ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry

... first fortnight, he found a not unpleasant duty. After first and fourth schools the other fags and he would stand not far from the pantry, and yell out "Breakfast," or "Tea," as it might be, "for Number So-and-So." Perhaps one had to nip up to the Creameries to get a slice of salmon, or cutlets, or sausages. Fagging at Harrow—which varies slightly in different houses—is hard or easy according to the taste and fancy of the fag's master. Some of the Sixth Form ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell

... Ladies Prymme: some linger to converse; safe young men,—they are all younger sons. Farther on, Lady Frost and Mr. Crampe, the wit, sit amicably side by side, pecking at each other with sarcastic beaks; occasionally desisting, in order to fasten nip and claw upon that common enemy, the passing friend! The Slowes, a numerous family, but taciturn, sit by themselves; ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the Tramp-House, and I was all-fired mad at her about somethin'—I shan't tell what, for Bill would kill me; but I pitched into her right and left; and, by gum, she pitched into me, so that for a spell it was nip-and-tuck betwixt us; and, by George, if she didn't order me out of the Tramp-House, and said it was her'n; and I'll be dumbed if I don't believe she'd av put me out, too, body and bones, if I hadn't gone. She was just like a tiger; and, I ...
— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes

... intelligent of dogs: he flew at the princess, knocked her down, and commenced shaking her so violently as to tear her miserable clothes to pieces. Used, however, to mouthing little lambs, he took care not to hurt her much, though for her good he left her a blue nip or two by way of letting her imagine what biting might be. His master, knowing he would not injure her, thought it better not to call him off, and in half a minute he left her of his own accord, and, casting ...
— A Double Story • George MacDonald

... know how you said, for years, you had to have a brim, and couldn't possibly wear a turban, with your nose, until I proved to you that if the head-size was only big ... Well, perhaps this needs just a lit-tle lift here. Ju-u-ust a nip. There! That does it." ...
— Half Portions • Edna Ferber

... It was nip and tuck for a while. The breeze was light and not very steady, so sometimes he gained and sometimes they. Once it freshened till the sloop was within a hundred yards of him, and then it dropped suddenly flat, the Dazzler's big mainsail flapping ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London

... following morning Johannes made ready for his return, after having had to eat beyond his capacity and drink a nip of brandy on top of it, although he said he never did so in the morning. Uli almost clung to his coat like a child that fears its father will run away from it; and when he started to give him his hand, Uli said he would drive a piece ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various

... hungry and there were boxes of gingersnaps, crackers, Bologna sausage and all sorts of good things there. But I paid no attention to them as I wished to deliver my message. The storekeeper was a big, good-natured man, and he nearly stepped on me. In fact, he did nip my toe and I barked with the pain. This made him first ...
— Billy Whiskers' Adventures • Frances Trego Montgomery

... true and beautiful picture of constancy of mind, under those rude blasts of adversity, which too frequently nip the growth of affection. The only alternative against a decay of passion on such occasions, is a sufficient portion of virtue, strong and well-grounded love, and constancy of mind as firm as the rock. In short, without constancy, there can be neither love, friendship, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, Issue 353, January 24, 1829 • Various

... war, unless a Napoleon springs up among us, a thing not at all probable, for I believe there are those who are constantly on the watch for such dangerous characters, and they may possess the power to nip all embryo emperors ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... side of life appears; so many promising young men learning to conceal or condemn the high ideals and the noble purposes they started with, because they find no welcome for them. You might help both by simply creating a purer atmosphere for them to breathe, sunshine to foster instead of frost to nip their good aspirations, and so, even if you planted no seed, you might encourage a timid sprout or two that would one day be a lovely flower or a grand tree ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... that he refused me any assistance whatever. Mistrust surrounded us on all sides in these early years of our work; open and concealed enmities assailed us both from near and far, and sought to embitter our lot and to nip our efforts in the bud. None the less for this, the institution blossomed quick and fair; but later on, through the well-known persecution directed against associations of students, it was brought to ...
— Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel • Friedrich Froebel

... silently, across the intervening space and drops like a flake of snow. Without warning, or suspicion of danger, the rat feels eight sharp claws buried in its flesh. It protests with frantic squeals, but these are stopped with a nip that crunches its skull, and the owl is away with it to the old tower, where the hungry children are calling, with weird, impatient hisses, ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)

... "Here. Don't look at me like that," he said. "You make me forget myself." He went to the locker, in which he rummaged till he produced a big copper kettle. "Here's the hot water can," he said. "Nip with it to the galley, before the cook puts his fire out. On deck, boy. Don't you know where ...
— Martin Hyde, The Duke's Messenger • John Masefield

... crutchalated; [C] but all must concede that she "went". Now whither did she "went"? Ah! methinks your brain is puzzled. Why, she "went to the Cupboard," says our author, who, perhaps, just then took a ten-cent nip. She did not go around it, or about it, or upon it, or under it. She did not let it come to her, but she went herself to the ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 15, July 9, 1870 • Various

... the "Giants" for second place, but it was not until September 6th that the "Giants" led the "Champions," and then only by the percentage figures of .652 to .646. Baltimore leading at that date with but .676, so it will be seen that the fight between those three was nip and tuck after the end of August. At that time the "Phillies," the Brooklyns and the Clevelands were struggling equally hard for fourth place, the "Phillies" leading, with Brooklyn fifth and Cleveland sixth. By this time Washington had comfortably buried the Louisvilles in the last ditch, ...
— Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1895 • Edited by Henry Chadwick

... cable of a floating light is frequently renewed, and that the chafing of the links at the hawse-hole is distributed by the occasional paying out or hauling in of a few yards of chain—a process which is styled "easing the nip." ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne

... infirmity or weakness, he was sure to enlarge upon it and make us try to amend it, assuming the role and aspect of a drill-sergeant for the time being. He used to have the mid-finger of the right hand extended in such a way that he could nip and slap you with it very painfully. He used this finger constantly to pound and drill his comrades, all being done of course in the height of glee, frolic, and good-humour. This finger, no doubt by the unlawful use to which he put it, at one time developed ...
— James Gilmour of Mongolia - His diaries, letters, and reports • James Gilmour

... "It's nip and tuck," said the doctor; "but we'll pull him through. Probably his first serious bout with John Barleycorn. If he had eaten food, this wouldn't have happened. It is not a ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath

... Where the divil d'ye see 'em! Has anny wan av 'em been comin' aboard for a nip av grog? There ye go thinkin' wrong again, Jeb; ye make me lose me timper! Haven't we been sailin' right along in a sea as smooth as a lass's cheek, now comin' sivin days? W'y, me b'y, even this ould tub's too fast for 'em!" Tim yawned and rolled ...
— Where the Souls of Men are Calling • Credo Harris

... that Great Deliverance, were both at Lexington; they also had "obstructed an officer" with brave words. British soldiers, a thousand strong, came to seize them and carry them over sea for trial, and so nip the bud of Freedom auspiciously opening in that early spring. The town militia came together before daylight, "for training." A great, tall man, with a large head and a high, wide brow, their captain,—one who had "seen service,"—marshalled them into line, numbering ...
— The Art of Public Speaking • Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein

... as well as you did, Mrs. Evarts," he said, "and Talbert told me that you had all the preliminary symptoms of one of your attacks and wanted me to 'nip it in ...
— The Whole Family - A Novel by Twelve Authors • William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jo

... blue eyes fell from his face to the flowers, and their expression simultaneously altered to disdainful amusement full of mischievous implications. She ran off without another word. The glazed entrance doors revolved, and he saw her nip into an electric brougham, which, before he had time to button his overcoat, vanished like an apparition ...
— The Pretty Lady • Arnold E. Bennett

... hiding from an impostor that you have found him out. Like Cardinal Newman, for whose beautiful passage at the end of the Apologia she expresses such richly deserved admiration (ii. 387), she unites to the gift of unction and brotherly love a capacity for giving an extremely shrewd nip to a brother whom she does not love. Her passion for Thomas-a-Kempis did not prevent her, and there was no reason why it should, from dealing very faithfully with a friend, for instance (ii. 271); from describing Mr. Buckle as a conceited, ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol 3 of 3) - The Life of George Eliot • John Morley

... the beginning, whenever a person has been arrested, charged with crime, and has secured a criminal lawyer to defend him, the first move of the latter is naturally to try and nip the case in the bud by inducing the complaining witness to abandon the prosecution. In a vast number of cases he is successful. He appeals to the charity of the injured party, quotes a little of the Scriptures and the "Golden Rule," pictures the destitute condition of the defendant's family ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train

... not have been contented with the favor of Edward and a proud, fair heritage? What good did he hope to get for himself by assuming the crown of so rude and barren a land as Scotland? Had she not told him he was but a summer king, that the winter would soon blight his prospects and nip his budding hopes; and had she not proved herself wiser even than he was himself? and then she would suddenly break off in these reproaches to declare that, if he were a prisoner, she would go to him; she would remain with ...
— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... boys have spent years in theme and literature courses in college preparing in vain for a future which was never to be theirs, while other youths with no educations have taken to writing as a cat takes to cat-nip. Should we assume that the annual output of Professor Baker's class at Harvard produces better playwrights than Moliere or Shakespeare, neither of whom enjoyed Professor Baker's lectures, nor, I think I am safe ...
— The Merry-Go-Round • Carl Van Vechten

... "freshened the nip," as Captain Truck called it, and then the conversation soon got to be too philosophical and contemplative for this unpretending record of ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... young 'un, the boss is out of the way, and you take this shilling and nip across to the 'Jolly Founders' and fetch half-a-gallon of fivepenny in this jar. We'll soon see where your teetotalling will be." The other workers in the shed applauded loudly at the prospect of a drink and some fun into ...
— Dick Lionheart • Mary Rowles Jarvis

... And she did clean out old Tim! But I must go back and hitch the horse into the cart, and say what you know as well as I, that your Aunt Stanshy is a great teetotaler, a leetle too much I think." [Simes liked his nip.] "But seein' how her minister's in favor of it, she is wuss than ever. Now to go on. Your father, boy, let me say, had a hand in this trouble, though not meaningly, and it was this way. Tour father ...
— The Knights of the White Shield - Up-the-Ladder Club Series, Round One Play • Edward A. Rand

... the beautiful Aurora, of whom so much hath been written, said, and sung, did, with her rosy fingers, nip and tweak Miss Pecksniff's nose. It was the frolicsome custom of the Goddess, in her intercourse with the fair Cherry, so to do; or in more prosaic phrase, the tip of that feature in the sweet girl's countenance was always very red at breakfast-time. For the most part, indeed, it ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... safeguarding the interests of Miss Campion? The prosecution would not hesitate to introduce her name if they thought it would do them any good—especially as they would have the contingency of the divorce case in their minds; and Campion was just the man to nip any attempt of that kind in the bud. At all events, the judge was more likely to listen to him on such a point than to anyone else. But would not the practice and etiquette of the bar put it ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... "There is naught human abroad this night, I warrant you. All wise folk are hugging the fire like us. Only those bad spirits of Christmas Eve are howling about for mischief, they say. Best keep away from the door, old Prince, lest they nip your toes or bite your ...
— Christmas in Legend and Story - A Book for Boys and Girls • Elva S. Smith

... take care! Take care lest your "poor Fabio's" fingers should suddenly nip your slim throat with a convulsive twitch that means death! Heaven only knows how I managed to keep my hands off her at that moment! Why, any groveling beast of the field had more feeling than this wretch ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli

... heap of logs from the wood-basket—"and that is the Meuse. Of course it isn't quite so straight as that really"—he put the poker in position—"but that is the line of it. Very well. Can't you see that what he is at is to nip this force here between two fires? By Jove, the tongs will do splendidly for that. Might have been made for it. So. Well, if JOFFRE is any good—Stop a bit"—he filled both hands with coal—"move your chair back. There, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914 • Various

... my wife's love and respect. And," he drew a deep breath, "by God, I was justified. I got there. If I hadn't," the fire died down in his mild blue eyes, and the thin body seemed to wither and shrink,—"if I hadn't struck it, it would hev killed her, the finest lady in the land, an' me too. It was nip an' tuck with both of us. And now," his voice warmed into life again,—"and now you offer me ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell

... Egon added. "But since you seem so determined to nip this dainty blossom of love in the bud, we'll hope it's not yet too late for a sharp frost to ...
— The Princess Virginia • C. N. Williamson

... up to the very last it was nip-and-tuck between 'em," said Boswell. "Apollyon and Delilah won it with one hole up, and they got that on the put. They'd have halved the hole if Medusa's back hair hadn't wiggled loose and bitten her caddie just as she was ...
— The Enchanted Typewriter • John Kendrick Bangs

... breath, Now nip the leaves that 's yellow fading; Nae gowans glint upon the green, Alas! they 're co'er'd wi' winter's cleading. As through the woods I musing gang, Nae birdies cheer me frae the bushes, Save little robin's lanely sang, Wild ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... the boy, and availed himself of his master's kindness by taking a second mate's nip out of the gin jar which was kept under his bed. The little fellow wondered what had caused such a convulsion of endearment, as Captain Bourne's demeanour had hitherto been the very antithesis of external tenderness. About an hour had elapsed when he was asked ...
— The Shellback's Progress - In the Nineteenth Century • Walter Runciman

... he said. "Give me a drop of brandy—there's a good fellow." I gave him his nip. Then I explained to him that I couldn't work for the Hour; that I wasn't on ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad

... at Buena Vista, the marshal's residence, Driscoll the next day received a personage, and offered him a cigar. Declined, with bow from shoulder. Hoped he would have a nip of peach brandy? Declined, with sweep from hips. He was a personage. Driscoll noted regalia, medals, cordon; and apologized for the ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... Gentels, or especially a worm, a worm that is not much unlike a Magot, which you will find at the roots of Docks, or of Flags, or of Rushes that grow in the water, or watry places, and a Grashopper having his legs nip'd off, or a flye that is in June and July to be found amongst the green Reed, growing by the water side, those are said to bee excellent baits. I doubt not but there be many others that both the Bream and the Carp also ...
— The Complete Angler 1653 • Isaak Walton

... When we got there our troubles were over for a while. Jim struck a match and had a fire going in no time; there was plenty of dry wood, of course. Then father rolls a keg out of a hole in the wall; first-rate dark brandy it was, and we felt a sight better for a good stiff nip all round. When a man's cold and tired, and hungry, and down on his luck as well, a good caulker of grog don't do him no harm to speak of. It strings him up and puts him straight. If he's anything of a man he can stand it, and ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... is at the door; that rascal Oscar will take off the blanket for you. There's a bottle of fair whisky in the cupboard, if you'd like a nip before starting. Bless me! I forgot the coffee! There on the table, Oscar, and never mind the chairs," he added as Oscar came in with a tin pot and the cups on ...
— The Port of Missing Men • Meredith Nicholson

... something awful, and hoped I had brought short skirts and thick boots. I think the sight of my short Scotch homespun skirt and high boots reassured her. We started about 11.30 in an open carriage with plenty of furs and wraps. It wasn't really very cold—just a nice nip in the air, and no wind. We drove straight into the woods from the park. There is a beautiful green alley which faces one just going out of the gate, but it was too steep to mount in a carriage. The woods are very extensive, the roads not too bad—considering the season, ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington

... front and rear. While the dog in front kept up a vigorous barking as close to his nose as it was safe to venture, the dog in the rear, watching his opportunity, sprang in and gave him a severe nip in the tender spot in his hind leg. This, of course, could not be put up with, and so the bear, still holding on to his pig, quickly whirled around to repel this second assailant. The instant he did so the clever dog that had been in front, but was now ...
— Winter Adventures of Three Boys • Egerton R. Young

... it cold!" he said, half-turning round, "seems to nip one's legs up regular. All right, Flossy," he shouted to the dog, as he continued his way out, in answer to a pitiful whine of the ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... sarcasm. "You have claimed, more than once," he went on, "to have steadied me and kept me out of harm's way; but I've never yet made any such demands on you as you are making on me. This thing can't go on, and you know it as well as I do. Nip it. Nip it now. Don't think that our intimacy is to end in any such fashion as this, for it isn't—especially at ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... would never be subject to these pests, but they will be. When the Northwest started to plant apple orchards they said they had no codling moths up there. There were some orchards that didn't but sooner or later they came. The time to nip those things is in the bud, and not let them spread. Lack of foresight has cost New England millions and millions of dollars just because they would not take the advice of one man when he told ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting. Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915 • Various

... red-headed soph, found himself pitted against Lucy Little. Despite his name, Little was not a "sissy," and he was no mean antagonist, as Punch found out. It was nip and tuck between them, and neither seemed to have the ...
— Frank Merriwell at Yale • Burt L. Standish

... the bunny uncle. "What a thing for a blackbird to do—nip off your nose! Why did he do such an impolite ...
— Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard - Adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman with the Mother Goose Characters • Howard R. Garis

... which had to be met by working the pumps and building false bulwarks in the hold; but by the exercise of every art known to sailors, she was kept afloat and tenable until June 11, 1881, when a fierce and unexpected nip broke her fairly in two, and she speedily sunk. There followed weeks and months of incessant and desperate struggling with sledge and boat against the forces of polar nature. The ship had sunk about 150 miles from what are known as the New Siberian Islands, for which DeLong then laid ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot

... would rather not have alluded to the subject, but I really do not know what powerful influence she may exert over him, though I cannot say that at present he has any fancy for the undertaking; but I wish, at all events, to nip the ...
— Washed Ashore - The Tower of Stormount Bay • W.H.G. Kingston

... Nip is all right. He's very gentle," said the housekeeper. "Uncle Toby named him Mr. Nip because he used to nip and bite when he first came. But Uncle Toby soon cured him of that. Mr. ...
— The Curlytops and Their Pets - or Uncle Toby's Strange Collection • Howard R. Garis

... out for all that was in him. The squire followed suit and the deacon. The road was wide and the snow was worn down smooth. The track couldn't have been in better condition. The Hopkins colors were not five rods behind the Hawkins colors as they got away. For half a mile it was nip and tuck, the deacon encouraging his horse and the widow encouraging the deacon, and then the squire began creeping up. The deacon's horse was a good one, but he was not accustomed to hauling freight in a race. A half-mile ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various

... couple in the land. Give way, my lads, and work the crater stuff out of your elbows, and the first lieutenant will see us all so sober, and so wet in the bargain, and think we're all so dry, that perhaps he'll be after giving us a raw nip when we ...
— Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 • Frederick Marryat

... is only necessary to give the compressors a turn, or a part of a turn; this will relieve the nip completely, and time is saved ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... responded gloomily. "It's nip an' tuck 'tween him an' Mark Wilson. That girl draws 'em as molasses does flies! She does it 'thout liftin' a finger, too, no more 'n the molasses does. She just sets still an' IS! An' all the time she's nothin' but a flighty little red-headed spitfire that don't know ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin

... cabin and fudges my peg three holes ahead. It seems that Bull, who talked the island lingo, has been braggin' to her an' tellin' her what we've been up to. The minute we have the anchor down, me an' Bull returns to the game. It's nip an' tuck to the finish an' I win by one point, Bull dyin' in the last hole, which ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne

... is very seasonable for the time of year, is it not? A nice nip in the air, as you might say; thoroughly healthy for those at liberty to enjoy it al fresco. I assure you the opportunity is not being wasted out here; all the best people are out-of-doors all the time. For myself, with thirty degrees of frost about, it seemed to be the exact moment ...
— Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 152, February 21st, 1917 • Various

... all the doubtful capacities and characters. The War Department, as says Potter, bristles with secessionists, and with them the old, rotten, respectable relics, preserved by General Scott, depress and nip in the bud all the ...
— Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862 • Adam Gurowski

... one little nip, and your beauty and pride will be gone. But something else than this was in store for poor daisy-plant. "I'll not gather the flower," said Emma. "The whole plant shall go into my garden, ...
— The Nursery, November 1873, Vol. XIV. No. 5 • Various

... of the whole affair. If God were indeed shaping the world to any end, if any design of His underlay the activities of men, what insensate waste to quench such a heart and brain as Harry's!—to nip, as it seemed out of mere blundering wantonness, a bud which had begun to open so generously: to sacrifice that youth and strength, that comeliness, that enthusiasm, and all for nothing! Had some campaign claimed him, had he been spent to gain a citadel or defend a flag, ...
— Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... act of sin came God's act of saving. Satan is ever on the heels of God to hurt man. But God is ever on the heels of Satan to cushion the hurt and save the man. It is a nip-and-tuck race with God a head and a heart in the lead. Something had to be done. Man had started sin in himself by his choice. The taint of disobedience, rebellion, had been breathed out into the air. He had gotten out of sorts with his surroundings. His presence would spoil his own heaven. The ...
— Quiet Talks about Jesus • S. D. Gordon

... the miner frequently encounters. For a time there's a fierce struggle between Richard, as represented by the rock, and Richmond, as personified by the miner. It's about an even bet as to who wins out. The play all over; don't you see? There's a purty lively scrimmage between the two. 'Tis nip and tuck for a time. At length Richard caves in, and Richmond wins out. So with the miner, the rock resists, then finally yields, and after that the milk and honey of enterprise in the shape of liquid oil flows forth. Am I clear or crude, ...
— A Pirate of Parts • Richard Neville

... many remain. This is one of the facts which, amongst much that is discouraging, convinces me of the innate nobility of man. An old friend of mine of pious disposition once remarked to me that he could never have been a Christian martyr. At the first twist of the cord, or the first nip of the red-hot pincers, he was sure that he would have thrown incense by the handful upon the altar of any heathen god or goddess that was fashionable at the moment. His spirit might have been willing, but his flesh ...
— Regeneration • H. Rider Haggard

... dear Miss Maitland, that you will forego a mistaken expression of sympathy, should an appeal be made to you, and assist me as a magistrate to nip this evil in the bud. In other words, to send this vagrant to the lockup at the earliest possible moment. As I observed, you owe it to your community to protect it, ...
— The Brass Bound Box • Evelyn Raymond

... would be to go through life looking at the curve of that nose and the modelling of that chin and jaw! I thought of the Squire's stern voice, and his blunt, plain-featured face. Always, always, so long as I lived, I should long to take a pair of pincers and tweak that nose into shape, and nip little pieces of flesh from the neck, and pad them on the hollows beneath the cheek-bones. Suddenly I began to laugh. I imagined myself doing it— saw the expression in the ...
— The Lady of the Basement Flat • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... limit of the farm, and entered his neck of woods, when the breathing of a cow trying to nip some comfort from the frosty sod delighted his ear. The pretty milker was there, with her calf at her side. Gaspard stroked and patted them. Though the New Englanders should seize them for beef, he could not regret they were wending home again. That invisible cord binding ...
— The Chase Of Saint-Castin And Other Stories Of The French In The New World • Mary Hartwell Catherwood



Words linked to "Nip" :   frigidness, tweet, taste sensation, tanginess, bite, argot, slang, shot, Japanese, coldness, lemon, snip off, disparagement, derogation, frigidity, cold, nipper, small indefinite amount, jargon, gustatory perception, lingo, goose, tweak, vernacular, spicery, spice, clipping, cut, taste, gustatory sensation, small indefinite quantity, depreciation, chomp, low temperature, spiciness, flavor, seize with teeth, vanilla, grip, cant, patois, taste perception



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