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.

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”).

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