sip

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   drink in sips

   I was sipping tea on the patio.

2. 2
   noun

   A small mouthful of drink.

   So order one more coffee / Have another sip of wine / We can go on talking / Until it's disco closing time.

3. 3
   noun

   An event at which people drink alcohol in small, usually subintoxicating amounts.

   Earl is always a good time. His appearance at parties, whether it's a smart cocktail sip or a basement gig, is mandatory.

4. 4
   verb

   To drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time.

   He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby.

Simplified etymology

Sip is an Old English word that goes back to the same root as sop, sup, supper, and, through French, soup.

Inherited from Middle English sippen, of uncertain origin. Compare with Low German sippen (“to sip”). Possibly from a variant of Middle English suppen (“to drink, sip”) (see sup) or perhaps from Old English sipian, sypian (“to take in moisture, soak, macerate”), from Proto-Germanic *sipōną (“to drip, trickle”), from Proto-Indo-European *seyb- (“to pour out, trickle, leak out”). Compare also Old High German supfen (“to drink, sip”), from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną (“to sip, intake”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary