cheep
Americanverb (used without object)
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to chirp; peep.
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Chiefly South Midland U.S. to reveal or tell a secret (usually used in the phrasecheep it ).
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cheepsimple
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cheepssimple
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have cheepedperfect
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has cheepedperfect
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am cheepingprogressive
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are cheepingprogressive
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is cheepingprogressive
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have been cheepingperfect progressive
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has been cheepingperfect progressive
Past
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cheepedsimple
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had cheepedperfect
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was cheepingprogressive
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were cheepingprogressive
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had been cheepingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cheep
First recorded in 1505–15; 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:
As he leaned over a trap with a stick to demonstrate what happens when the mechanism is sprung, there was a sudden flutter and cheep by his shoulder.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2022
I’ve always found it curious that despite spending even more billions over decades trying to locate other forms of intelligent life we’ve had nary a cheep back; not even a single intergalactic WhatsApp message.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2018
“Good putt, bud,” he said to Justin Rose after the Englishman’s uphill, six-foot birdie at the second hole entranced crowds so silent you could hear songbirds cheep.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 27, 2014
He goes on: "You could whirl him round in the Hadron collider without getting a single cheep of remorse."
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2012
“Cheep, cheep, cheep,” she concludes, waving her head and hands back and forth.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
By comparing these acoustic data with climate predictions, the research team hopes to learn how drier conditions in the future could threaten prairie chirps and cheeps.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 17, 2022
But when I refer to birdsong, I mean those longer, more complicated sounds as opposed to the short cheeps and peeps.
From Scientific American ● May 4, 2022
He is also a master of the swell, of getting low notes to fill the hall with tons of pressure and having high birdlike cheeps appearing at the edge of audibility.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2019
“Just keep it short,” she says over the racket of cheeps when I ask her if I can use her phone.
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
The babies’ cheeps go quiet as soon as she leaves.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
As the column of bombers swept toward Germany, Carpet cheeped from every plane, dazzling the Wurzburgs, while more puffs of glittering Window covered the sky with phantoms.
From Time Magazine Archive
She chortled and cheeped and gave his arm an encouraging peck.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Snuffy Ledoux crowed and clucked and cheeped; Amarante Cordova brayed like a mule.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Nobody cheeped fer a minute, ’cause the boys was stumped fer somethin’ to go on with.
From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Gates, Eleanor
It was a trying pair of seconds, through which the duke's seed-cake cheeped like a canary.
From The Tigress by Warner, Anne
Even the hatcheries across the nation that specialize in mailing chickens — from simple Rhode Island Reds to cockapoo-looking Silkies that arrive to the post office in vented, cheeping boxes — are wiped out.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2023
I don’t have to start pretend-flying them through the air and make cheeping noises.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2019
We listened to the cheeping of the Shama thrush, native to India.
From New York Times ● Dec. 2, 2011
And a mallard escorts her brood – 10 adorable little cheeping fluffballs – down the rapids.
From The Guardian ● May 17, 2010
Once I had a couple of them free, I’d pretend they were talking to each other in cheeping voices.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
