nipping

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