Word.ws English Dictionary

knip

knip is the alternative form of nip.

knip is the alternative form of knep.

Meaning of nip

Verb

nip (third-person singular simple present nips, present participle nipping, simple past and past participle nipped)

  1. To catch and enclose 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.1859, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Merlin and Vivien
  2. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip.
    • The small shoots ... must be nipt off.1716, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry
  3. To benumb [e.g., cheeks, fingers, nose] by severe cold.
  4. To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor of; to destroy.
  5. To annoy, as by nipping.
    • And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
  6. To taunt.

See all 27 meanings of nip

Meaning of knep

Verb

knep (third-person singular simple present kneps, present participle knepping, simple past and past participle knepped)

  1. (Northern England) To bite gently, nibble.
  2. (Northern England) To graze, crop; (of horses) to bite in play.
  3. (Northern England) To pick or pick off (e.g. flowers, berries, etc.)
  4. (Scotland) To clasp the hands; to clench one's fists.
  5. (Scotland) To tie or bundle something tightly and securely.

See all 6 meanings of knep

Forms of knip

third-person singular presentknips
present participleknipping
past participleknipped
pastknipped

Origin of knip

Probably from late Middle English *knippen, from Middle Dutch knippen, whence modern Dutch knippen (“to cut, clip, snip”). Doublet of gnip and nip.

Questions about knip

What is knip the alternative form of?
Knip is the alternative form of nip.

Words near knip in the dictionary

  1. Knightwick
  2. knightwise
  3. Knik
  4. Knin
  5. kninkles
  6. knip
  7. Knipe
  8. Knipes
  9. kniphofia
  10. kniphofias
  11. Knipp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knip (page history and authors); nip (page history and authors); knep (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “knip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.