Chiefly Sc. Forms: ? 4, 6 chepe, cheip, cheape, 6–7 cheepe, 9 cheap, 8– cheep. [An imitative word.]
1. intr. To utter shrill feeble sounds like those of young birds, mice, bats, etc.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. viii. 76. Hir birdis chepand in thare nest.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 698. We sall gar cheknis cheip and geaslyngis pew.
1570. Levins, Manip., 70. To cheepe, pipilare.
1606. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 71. A good conditioned Henne … after she hath once heard them cheape or chirpe vnder her.
1802. Scott, Minstr. Sc. Bord., Pref. 75. The maxim of the Douglasses, that ‘it was better to hear the lark sing, than the mouse cheep.’
1845. Hirst, Poems, 50. A bat affrighted cheeps In some deserted room.
1883. Mrs. Ewing, Jackanapes, 15.
2. trans. To utter with a cheeping voice.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xii. (1859), 272. ‘Hold hard now,’ cheeps little Conchy.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 83. I would pipe and trill, And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.
1883. A. M. Mayer, in Century Mag., Aug., 487/2. They cheep a good-morning to one another in soft, cheerful voices.
Hence Cheeping vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 774. Thy cheiping and peiping with weiping thou salt rew.
1762. J. Man, Buchanan’s Hist. Scot., 385, note. This Archbald is sirnamed … cheeping Archbald from the way of his pronunciation.
1611. Cotgr., Piolement, the … cheeping of sparrowes or young birds.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, i. (1863), 59. Good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on.
1886. All Y. Round, 4 Sept., 103. The decks … resounded incessantly with the noise of hammers; of cheeping blocks.
