beep
Americannoun
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beeps
plural
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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)
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beeps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
beeped,
past participle, past
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beeping
present participle
verb (used with object)
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beeps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
beeped,
past participle, past
-
beeping
present participle
-
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:
And, I promise, if the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.”
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2026
She added: “I promise if the apocalypse actually comes you can still beep me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
Every now and then, my watch would beep to signal that another mile had passed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
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
“How are you?” the cashier says, as the scanner beep, beep, beeps.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
Tina Tallon, a professor of artificial intelligence and music composition at The Ohio State University, explains that a "click track" features clicks or beeps such as a metronome, or other cues to capture rhythm.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 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 beeps and bells of the slot machines echo down the Strip - a blur of glittering lights, and performers who never break character.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025
In a moment she will hear the beeps of the security system, the garage door opening, car doors closing, her children’s voices in the house.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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
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
Monitors beeped; Shakira played on the sound system.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 19, 2023
But all she could do was lie motionless, surrounded by strange machinery which continually beeped and whirred.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2022
The alarm clocks went off in our house at 7:00 a.m., and after we all silently made a pact not to wake quite yet, the alarms beeped again at 7:05 a.m.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
The beaches are empty, and he can concentrate on the beeping in his bulbous yellow headphones, which grows louder as the coil gets closer to metal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
In the days and weeks after, she struggled to sleep and was plagued by a beeping noise in her bedroom at night, that was neither her phone nor the baby monitor.
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2026
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
"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
I walk eight more sidewalk lines, noticing city sounds more than before: the beeping of a backing-up truck, the one-sided cell phone conversations, the rattling of tires over potholes.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
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.
