nipping
Americanadjective
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sharp or biting, as cold.
-
sarcastic; caustic.
adjective
-
sharp and biting
a nipping wind
-
sarcastic; bitter
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nipping
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.
The intrusion was first detected by Hugging Face last week, when it noticed tens of thousands of AIs nipping at its system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
More recently, the explosion in popularity for resale clothing and the growing use of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss have created more need for nipping and tucking what is in peoples’ closets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
"Probably on reflection I could have used swing more to set up the wobble seam, which might have just gone straight on rather than nipping," Potts says.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
Claude-maker Anthropic has OpenAI, Google's Gemini and even Grok from xAI nipping at its heels in the market for professional AI.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
But he was still just a lieutenant, not a general, a terrier nipping at Rollins’ ankles.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
