bleep
Americannoun
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a brief, constant beeping sound, usually of a high pitch and generated by an electronic device.
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such an electronic sound used to replace a censored word or phrase, as on a television broadcast.
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Also (used as a euphemism to indicate the omission or deletion of an obscenity or other objectionable word.)
verb (used without object)
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bleeps,
present (3rd person singular)
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bleeped,
past participle, past
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bleeping
present participle
verb (used with object)
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bleeps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bleeped,
past participle, past
-
bleeping
present participle
noun
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a short high-pitched signal made by an electronic apparatus; beep
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another word for bleeper
verb
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(intr) to make such a noise
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(tr) to call (someone) by triggering the bleeper he or she is wearing
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bleepsimple
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bleepssimple
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have bleepedperfect
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has bleepedperfect
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am bleepingprogressive
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are bleepingprogressive
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is bleepingprogressive
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have been bleepingperfect progressive
-
has been bleepingperfect progressive
Past
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bleepedsimple
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had bleepedperfect
-
was bleepingprogressive
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were bleepingprogressive
-
had been bleepingperfect progressive
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:
The six-part comedy may bleep out every mention of “FIFA” and “Cup.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
"As soon as I said it, I was like, 'oh my gosh, I'm on the BBC'. I was like, 'are they going to bleep that out?' I feel so bad," says Hunt.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 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
“I can’t have the full wording on the shirts, but we’ll bleep out some letters.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
It has caused a lot of pain to people and I think it is insulting to bleep it out.”
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
We took the lift down to the ballroom, and an agent wanded me but wasn't particularly interested in the bleeps set off by the contents of my inside jacket pocket.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026
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
As low-Earth orbit fills with telecommunications satellite constellations, astronomers are studying how to do their jobs when many cosmic objects will be all but obscured by the satellites’ glinting solar panels and radio bleeps.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 7, 2022
Now that I’m breathing on my own, my wall of machines bleeps far less, so I get fewer visits from the nurses.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
Millions of people's mobile phones lit up and bleeped with a "severe alert" notification on Friday which said there was a "very high risk of wildfires nationally".
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Sharon Osbourne’s frequently bleeped candor on “The Osbournes” was hilarious, remember?
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 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
Finally, I attached the simcap of my chatlink session with Sorrento, but I bleeped the part where he said my real name and blurred the image of my school photo.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
As the Conservative minister who launched the UK's emergency alert system, Oliver Dowden was more than familiar with the loud bleeping sound coming from his phone earlier this month.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
“No more trademark. No more bleeping, starting right now,” James says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
"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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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
