lip

plural lips

1. countableEither of the two fleshy protrusions around the opening of the mouth.

   […]thine owne lippes teſtifie againſt thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 15:6, column 1

   Synonyms: labium

2. countableA part of the body that resembles a lip, such as the edge of a wound or the labia.

   […]I twiſted my thighs, ſqueezed, and compreſs’d the lips of that virgin-ſlit[…]

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, pages 67–68

   Synonyms: labium

3. broadlycountableThe projecting rim of an open container or a bell, etc.; a short open spout.

   The cork sails over the garden wall and lands somewhere no one can see it. A crest of white spills over the lip of the bottle and Niall pours the wine into Elaine's glass.

   2018, Sally Rooney, “Six Months Later (July 2013)”, in Normal People

   Synonyms: edge, rim, spout

4. slanguncountableBacktalk; verbal impertinence.

   Don’t give me any lip!

   2 more examples

   Kevin Sutherland: I've had enough of your lip!

   2008 May 1, Damon Beesley, Iain Morris, The Inbetweeners, I:ii: “Bunk Off”,

   Loose Tomato grew up tough. No one ever suspected that he was scared every time he walked down the street. Any lip and they got their ass kicked.

   1977, Larry Mitchell, The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Calamus Books; republished New York: Nightboat Books, 2020, →ISBN, page 97

   Synonyms: backchat, cheek, impudence, rudeness, insolence

5. countableuncountableThe edge of a high spot of land.

   They toiled forward along a tiny path on the river’s lip. Suddenly it vanished. The bank was sheer red solid clay in front of them, sloping straight into the river.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Passion”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 311

   2 more examples

   We landed at the head of Garden Island, which is situated near the middle of the river and on the lip of the Falls. On reaching that lip, and peering over the giddy height, the wondrous and unique character of the magnificent cascade at once burst upon us.

   1894, David Livingstone, “Chapter VII”, in A Popular Account of Dr Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries

   Looking to the east we could see Api and the mountains of west Nepal, shapely snow peaks in the distance, while in the immediate foreground, much lower but still dramatic, were the peaks of Panch Chuli IV and V (III was hidden by the lip of a huge cornice), Telkot and Nagling, all of them unclimbed, all steep and challenging.

   1999, Harish Kapadia, “Ascents in the Panch Chuli Group”, in Across Peaks & Passes in Kumaun Himalaya, New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 136

6. countableuncountableThe sharp cutting edge on the end of an auger.
7. countableuncountablebiologyOne of the two opposite divisions of a labiate corolla.
8. countableuncountablebiologyA distinctive lower-appearing of the three true petals of an orchid.
9. countableuncountablebiologyOne of the edges of the aperture of a univalve shell.
10. colloquialcountableuncountableentertainmentEmbouchure: the condition or strength of a wind instrumentalist's lips.
11. abbreviationclippingcolloquialcountableuncountableClipping of lipstick.

    I put on some red lip and a casual print dress.

present singular third person lips · participle present lipping · participle past lipped · past lipped · obsolete participle past lipt · obsolete past lipt

1. transitiveTo touch or grasp with the lips; to kiss; to lap the lips against (something).

   […] a hand that Kings / Haue lipt, and trembled kiſſing.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v], page 348, column 1

   3 more examples

   Our love was like the bright snow-flakes, Which melt before you pass, Or the bubble on the wine which breaks Before you lip the glass;

   1826 March, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, “Josephine”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 16, number 63, page 308

   Once […] at dawn, I heard a bull-moose lipping tree-buds, and lay still in my blanket while the huge beast wandered past, crack! crash! and slop! slop!through the creek […]

   1901, Robert W. Chambers, chapter 9, in Cardigan, New York: Harper, published 1902, page 130

   […] in a quick swirl the trout lipped a fly beneath the surface with that sort of gigantic delicacy of an elephant picking up a peanut.

   1929, William Faulkner, “June Second 1910”, in The Sound and the Fury, New York: Vintage, published 1956, page 144

2. figurativelytransitiveTo touch lightly.

   He moved the boat onward very slowly, lipping the glossy surface delicately with the light oars.

   1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York: Viking, page 405

3. intransitivetransitiveTo wash against a surface, lap.

   The mist that lipped against the wall behind him hung overhead like a ceiling, hiding any stars.

   2008, Julie Czerneda, Riders of the Storm, New York: Daw Books, Interlude, page 406

   2 more examples

   It was very soothing and restful up there on the saloon deck, with no sound but the gentle lipping of the water as it rippled against the sides of the steamer.

   1898, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 10, in The Tragedy of the Korosko, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 324

   So on I went, and by my side, it seemed, Paced a great bull, kept from me by a brook Which lipped the grass about it as it streamed Over the flagroots that the grayling shook;

   1922, John Masefield, The Dream, London: Heinemann, page 9

4. intransitiveTo rise or flow up to or over the edge of something.

   Below, the swollen Eden, lipping full from bank to bank, rolled yellow and surly to the sea.

   1903, Robert Barr, Over the Border, London: Isbister, Book 4, Chapter 7, p. 375

   3 more examples

   The rest of the herd were grouped so close to the water’s edge that from time to time a lazy, leaden-green swell would come lipping up and splash them.

   1911, Charles G. D. Roberts, “Mothers of the North”, in Neighbors Unknown, U.S. edition, New York: Macmillan, page 256

   The sun lipped over the mountain by now, shone on the corrugated-iron roofs of the five sanitary units, shone on the gray tents and on the swept ground of the streets between the tents.

   1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 22, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 311

   Above the spring the little statue of the god Myrddin, he of the winged spaces of the air, stared from between the ferns. Beneath his cracked wooden feet the water bubbled and dripped into the stone basin, lipping over into the grass below.

   1973, Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills, New York: William Morrow, Book I, Chapter 3, p. 26

5. transitiveTo form the rim, edge or margin of something.

   1920, W. E. B. Du Bois, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, Chapter 9, p. 242, It was a tiny stone house whose front window lipped the passing sidewalk where ever tramped the feet of black soldiers marching home.

   2 more examples

   […] old Macrae, of Adrfeulan Farm near by, had caused rude steps to be cut in the funnel-like hollow rising sheer up from the sloping ledge that lipped the chasm and reached the summit of the scaur.

   1894, Fiona Macleod, chapter 4, in Pharais, Derby, page 88

   The woman had slipped to the very edge of the rock—the edge that lipped the fury of the Pit. She was half over. And she was slipping—slipping....

   1924, James Oliver Curwood, chapter 3, in A Gentleman of Courage, New York: Cosmopolitan, page 36

6. transitiveTo utter verbally.

   Salt tears were coming, when I heard my name / Most fondly lipp’d […]

   1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 48, lines 964–965

7. transitiveTo simulate speech by moving the lips without making any sound; to mouth.

   “Ah, I thought my memory didn’t deceive me!” he lipped silently.

   1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIII, in The Woodlanders […], volume III, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 274

   1 more example

   And as he read, lipping the words, he thought of his own boyhood […]

   1980, Cyril Dabydeen, “Mammita’s Garden Cove”, in Caribbean New Wave: Contemporary Short Stories, London: Heinemann, published 1990, page 65

8. hobbiesTo make a golf ball hit the lip of the cup, without dropping in.

   Lambert just missed his three; his putt lipped the hole before finishing two feet past it.

   1999, J. M. Gregson, chapter 9, in Malice Aforethough, Sutton: Severn House, page 112

   1 more example

   “I shall find the ball to the left of a patch of sword grass near the hole,” he said. “My second will lip the hole, I know it as well as if I could see the whole thing.”

   1910 March, Fred M. White, “A Record Round”, in The Windsor Magazine

9. transitiveentertainmentTo change the sound of (a musical note played on a wind instrument) by moving or tensing the lips.

plural LIPs

1. abbreviationgeographyAbbreviation of large igneous province.
2. abbreviationAbbreviation of litigant in person.