Lip v.¹

[f. LIP sb.]

  1.  trans. To touch with the lips, apply the lips to.

1826.  E. Irving, Babylon, I. IV. 262. As it were lipping the cup, whose bitterness this generation shall have to drink.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 166. Or the bubble on the wine, which breaks Before you lip the glass.

1842.  S. Lover, Handy Andy, xviii. 154. After the final adjustment of the mouthpiece lipping the instrument with an affectation exquisitely grotesque.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., xlii. No good sheep-dog even so much as lips a sheep to turn it.

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Lip, to, to adjust the lips so as to produce the proper tone of wind-instruments played by the mouth.

  b.  To kiss. poet.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 72. To lip a wanton in a secure Cowch. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., II. v. 30. A hand that Kings Haue lipt, and trembled kissing.

1605.  Marston, Eastward Hoe, I. i. Lip her, knave, lip her.

a. 1845.  Hood, What can old Men do? ii. Love will not clip him, Maids will not lip him.

1871.  Rossetti, Poems, Eden Bower, xix. Lip me and listen.

1888.  E. C. Stedman, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 116.

  c.  transf. Of water: To kiss, to lap.

1842.  Tennyson, Audley Crt., 11. The dying ebb … faintly lipp’d The flat granite.

1861.  Whyte-Melville, Good for Nothing, II. 61. Her cargo was … stowed away by deck and hold, till the waters lipped the gunwale.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., i. When the waxing element lips … but a single pebble of the founder’s name.

1877.  L. Morris, Epic Hades, II. 110. The clear cold crystal of a mossy pool Lipped the soft emerald marge.

1889.  Herring & Ross, Irish Cousin, II. II. iv. 34. The murmur of the sea, slightly lipping the rocks.

  absol.  1875.  Blackmore, A. Lorraine, III. ix. 149. It did not lip, or lap, or ripple,… as all well-meaning rivers do.

  2.  a. To pronounce with the lips only; to murmur softly. b. To take upon one’s lips, to utter (? obs.); (slang) to sing (a song).

1789.  J. Parker, Life’s Painter, 113. But come, I’ll lip ye a chaunt.

1799.  in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., III. 353. Sir John lipt us the favourite chaunt of Jerry Abershaw’s ‘Ye scamps [etc.].’

1818.  Keats, Endym., I. 965. Salt tears were coming when I heard my name Most fondly lipp’d.

1840.  Lytton, Pilgr. Rhine, v. The … fame … is lipped by the Babel of the … world.

1861.  Temple Bar, I. 169. A respectable British Bacchus … lipping soft lyrics to the blushing Ariadne at his side.

1887.  T. Hardy, Woodlanders, III. xiii. 274. ‘Ah, I thought my memory didn’t deceive me!’ he lipped silently.

1893.  ‘B. Abbotsford,’ But, 74. I lipped ‘Good-morning’ to him.

1896.  Punch, 11 Jan., 15/1. There’s Arnold and there’s Morris, both can lip the laureate line.

  3.  (Chiefly Sc.) a. intr. Of water, etc.: To rise to, cover, or flow over the lip or brim of a vessel. Also with in, over. Also of the vessel: To have the water, etc. flowing over its brim or edge.

1703.  D. Williamson, Serm. bef. Gen. Assembly Edin., 49. The wrath of God lipping in over their Souls.

1839.  R. M. M‘Cheyne, in Mem. (1872), 334. It [your joy] will be like a bowl lipping over.

1883.  Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 231. To carry [the waterpail] with the water lipping at the edge. Ibid. (1883), Treas. Isl., IV. xvii. The gunwale was lipping astern.

  b.  trans. To serve as a lip or margin to.

1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., xx. (1852), 478. Oval basins of coral-work just lipping the surface of the sea.

1880.  Blackmore, Mary Anerley, II. xviii. 305. The margin … instead of being rough and rocky, lips the pool with gentleness.

  † c.  To overlay the lip or edge of (a vessel).

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 722. With the hornes are made drinking Cups, and for that purpose the richer sort of people do edge or lip them ouer with siluer and gold.

  d.  To notch on the lip or edge.

1822.  Blackw. Mag., IX. 323. That broth pot ladle, sorely lipped, and riven.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. It were worth lipping a good blade, before wrong were offered to it.

  e.  intr. Path. Of a bone: To form a lip or morbid outgrowth at the extremity. Also of a casting: To have an irregular projection at the edge.

1891.  Pall Mall Gaz., 14 May, 3/1. When a statue is cast in several pieces and one of the pieces ‘lips.’

1894, 1897.  [see LIPPING vbl. sb.].

  f.  trans. Golf. To drive the ball just to the lip or edge of (a hole).

1899.  Daily News, 24 April, 10/6. At the fourteenth Mr. B. again lipped the hole and lost.

  g.  Sc. To fill the interstices of (a wall) up to the lips or face.

1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 115. Walls … may frequently be made either more durable, or more ornamental, by being dashed, lipped, or harled with lime.

1845.  Statist. Acc. Scot., X. 307. He has built stone dikes of more than 9 miles in length lipped and pointed with lime.