Definition of "nip" []

• To seize and pinch or bite: The fish nipped the wader's toe. (verb-transitive)
• To remove or sever by pinching or snipping: nipped off the plant leaf. (verb-transitive)
• To bite or sting with the cold; chill. (verb-transitive)
• To check or cut off the growth or development of: a conspiracy that was nipped in the bud by the police. See Synonyms at blast. (verb-transitive)
• Slang To snatch up hastily. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Mr. Ditton, the village lawyer, also saw it without having recourse to the spy-glass; but as Mr. Ditton had but lately had what he called a nip, and indeed several of them, he was in that happy state of sweet good nature which agrees with the last speaker."
• "I've just had a course of five, which was prompted by a nip from a stray cat, which I feed, here in India."
• "If his sister got a nip from the other dog, the brother would fight harder."