beep
Americannoun
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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)
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
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beepsimple
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beepssimple
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have beepedperfect
-
has beepedperfect
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am beepingprogressive
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are beepingprogressive
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is beepingprogressive
-
have been beepingperfect progressive
-
has been beepingperfect progressive
Past
-
beepedsimple
-
had beepedperfect
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was beepingprogressive
-
were beepingprogressive
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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
While hiking in a forest in the Mount Shasta area with a metal detector, browsing over rocks and dirt, his machine began to beep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 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
I hear something moving in the walls on either side of me, and then there’s a high-pitched beep.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
My days are filled with the beeps and growls of bulldozers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
“It’s not straightforward,” says David Clarke, a fisheries expert at Swansea University who was funded by EDF to monitor high-frequency beeps fired at tagged shad to see if they swam away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 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
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
The site beeps once before displaying a single search bar.
From "Legend" 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
It beeped as Bach and others in his module repeatedly alerted deputies that the insulin pump was empty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2024
Monitors beeped; Shakira played on the sound system.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 19, 2023
My new iPhone beeped one o’clock, which is when visiting hours started.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
The beeping of damaged cars and the crackle of downed electrical wires echoed through streets that were otherwise eerily quiet.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
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
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
Potter pointed out that several months ago the Waymo vehicles reduced the volume of its beeping, when the vehicles drive in reverse, when in the lots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
When they faded again, I was in a much different room in the Infirmary, this one all blue tiles and beeping monitors.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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.
