beep
Americannoun
-
a short, relatively high-pitched tone produced by a horn, electronic device, or the like as a signal, summons, or warning.
-
one of the periodic signals sounded by a beeper.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to sound (a horn, warning signal, etc.).
impatient drivers beeping their horns.
-
to announce, warn, summon, etc., by beeping.
The doctor was beeped to call the hospital.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
beepsimple
-
beepssimple
-
have beepedperfect
-
has beepedperfect
-
am beepingprogressive
-
are beepingprogressive
-
is beepingprogressive
-
have been beepingperfect progressive
-
has been beepingperfect progressive
Past
-
beepedsimple
-
had beepedperfect
-
was beepingprogressive
-
were beepingprogressive
-
had been beepingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of beep
First recorded in 1925–30; imitative
Explanation
A beep is a brief warning sound. You might give a quick beep on your car horn to let a bicyclist know you're passing her on the road. Your friend's voice mail might say, "Leave a message after the beep!" and your smoke alarm might emit an annoying series of beeps when its battery is dying. In either case, you'll hear a high-pitched, brief tone. The word is imitative — it sounds like what it means — and relatively new, only as old as the car horns it imitates. Beep was first an interjection in the 1920s, and a noun and a verb by the end of the decade.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Drake’s bid to soundtrack the warm weather months is “Janice,” which incorporates a bizarre vocal modulation that makes the simple refrain—“beep beep baby”—strangely addictive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Moxi – which shuttles medical supplies around hospitals – might respond by displaying its heart-shaped LED eyes and a beep beep greeting of its own.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
She added: “I promise if the apocalypse actually comes you can still beep me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
The funkiest thing a “radioactive shrimp” would do—that is, if you put a radiation sensor over such a crustacean, says Pillai—is beep.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2025
I was already awake at 4:00 a.m. when the alarm on my wrist- watch began to beep; I’d been awake most of the night, struggling for breath in the meager air.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Working with bio-acousticians who measure hearing in animals, she developed a soundtrack of pulses and beeps to play to anaesthetised hedgehogs from a rescue centre.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
My days are filled with the beeps and growls of bulldozers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
At a stoplight, if there is a car ahead of me that starts to move, and I don’t, my car beeps twice and signals me on the display.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
The sounds of construction — the slow beeps of a truck in reverse, a pile driver pounding the hard earth — filled the air.
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2024
My electric skateboard beeps once, snapping me out of my reverie.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
Shortly afterwards, mobile phones beeped in unison as a missile alert came in and the wail of sirens started up.
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
The craft beeped awake, arched its hawklike shoulders, and whined off into the valley.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2024
Jeannine Ursell, from North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, says she gets beeped at and shouted at by people in cars and vans.
From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2024
It beeped during mealtimes, when Bach gave his food to fellow detainees because eating without insulin could cause his blood glucose level to spike to dangerous levels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2024
There were only five minutes left before the end of school— five minutes until I could get back to Rachel and hear her explanation—when the intercom in Mr. Berlin’s physics class beeped.
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
The low hum of cars passing and horns beeping in the distance gives me a sense of safety; I’m never alone.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
Some residents have told The Times they’ve been unable to sleep because of the incessant beeping from Waymos maneuvering in and out of charging spots on the lot 24 hours a day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025
"Intelligent Speed Assistance", as it's known, may feel like a nuisance, beeping away when you are at the wheel.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2025
Now the family are hoping they can have their "cheeky and determined" Kobi at home with them for Christmas, away from the beeping machines and clinical smells of hospital.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2025
While I listened to the beeping, I had this mental image of Russian high-school kids lifting the Sputnik and putting it in place on top of a big, sleek rocket.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
