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Synonyms

bleep

American  
[bleep] / blip /

noun

  1. a brief, constant beeping sound, usually of a high pitch and generated by an electronic device.

  2. such an electronic sound used to replace a censored word or phrase, as on a television broadcast.

  3. Also (used as a euphemism to indicate the omission or deletion of an obscenity or other objectionable word.)


verb (used without object)

  • bleeps,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • bleeped,
    past participle,  past
  • bleeping
    present participle
  1. (of an electronic device) to emit a series of bleeps as an audible signal, summons, or warning.

verb (used with object)

  • bleeps,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • bleeped,
    past participle,  past
  • bleeping
    present participle
  1. Also to censor (an obscene, vulgar, or other objectionable word or phrase) from a radio or television broadcast by deleting from the audio signal, leaving a gap or an electronic tone.

    The word was bleeped out of the comedian's routine.

bleep British  
/ bliːp /

noun

  1. a short high-pitched signal made by an electronic apparatus; beep

  2. another word for bleeper

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (intr) to make such a noise

  2. (tr) to call (someone) by triggering the bleeper he or she is wearing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of bleep

First recorded in 1950–55; perhaps imitative

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:

At the press conference, Farage said that Channel 4 had opted to bleep the names, rather than broadcast them was because Jukes' claims were "simply not true".

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

The six-part comedy may bleep out every mention of “FIFA” and “Cup.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

“I’ll be catching up with an old friend that I haven’t seen in a long time,” Cape said, “and all of a sudden my phone goes — bleep — 30 minutes until the Subhumans!”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2024

The bleep machine has been called on shift for first practice as Max Verstappen details his frustrations at his Red Bull's performance at Turn 11, calling it a "disaster" and adding he has "no grip".

From BBC ● May 16, 2024

I kind of sleep, kind of don’t—the bells go off, announcements bleep out across the air.

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz

The soundtrack is a series of bleeps and pings as fresh data is fed to dozens of men in T-shirts and hoodies hunched over joysticks and keyboards.

From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026

These bleeps sound alive and then suddenly, there is life: hundreds of pleasure-seekers stomping in the sand as laser beams outline alien towers over these orange cliffs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2025

She flipped cheerleader routines into an overwhelming bitcrushed force, burying them in a maelstrom of bleeps, bloops and primal screams that sounded like the optimism of Silicon Valley crashing down around her ears.

From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025

More all-sky radio surveys have come online, and observers now know to wait for the slow blips and bleeps of LPTs.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 3, 2024

The radio bleeps and buzzes and squawks and crackles so much that it's impossible to hear a word.

From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Sharon Osbourne’s frequently bleeped candor on “The Osbournes” was hilarious, remember?

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2025

The video has been edited, emojis have been added, and some comments have been bleeped out - but authorities are not questioning its authenticity.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2025

Swear words are always bleeped out during TV broadcasts by F1, which delays the transmission of team radio conversations so they can be vetted for language.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2024

But that speech was supposed to start “I bleeped up,” and that was sort of his pitch to me.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2023

I’d seen a couple of births on that cable-TV show, and people usually yelled for a while; sometimes they swore and it had to be bleeped, but it never took longer than half an hour.

From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

A cadre of hyper-online collaborators sing and rap over his bleeping, blurry beats, including Lil Uzi Vert, Shygirl and PinkPantheress.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2022

It tracks the fluid's journey - bleeping as it moves over the skin - to show where cancer may have seeded.

From BBC ● May 16, 2022

"They’re making it worse by bleeping it for sure," he said.

From Fox News ● Jan. 12, 2022

"They're making it worse by bleeping it, for sure," he said.

From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2022

The lambs tiggered up close, bleeping like those crap Fiat Noddy cars, idiotically pleased to see me.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

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