meepn.int.
/miːp/, U.S. /mip/ A short, high-pitched sound. Also as int.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > unpleasant quality > shrill quality > [noun] > thin and shrill sound > bleep or pip
pip-pip1909
meep1927
beep-beep1929
pip1929
bleep1953
bleeping1957
peep1957
wheep1984
1927 H. P. Lovecraft Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath v, in Dreams in Witch-house & Other Weird Stories (2004) 224 As Carter gave a loud meep of urgent summons, a score of burrows emptied forth their leathery, doglike tenants.
1977 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 9 July 6/1 ‘Meep’ is offered..as the word by which homo sapiens may clear a path to the subway door through a swath of his fellows.
1993 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 28 Feb. 27 ‘Meep, meep,’ said Keating, giving a good imitation of the Road Runner cartoon character who constantly outwits the luckless Wile E. Coyote.
2009 V. Wolff Warrior of Highlands xiv. 122 Haley sprang back into her room, cursing the shrill meep that burst from her lips.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
meepv.
/miːp/, U.S. /mip/ intransitive. To make a short, high-pitched sound.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > unpleasant quality > shrill quality > sound shrill [verb (intransitive)] > bleep or pip
meep1927
pip1938
bleep1957
1927 H. P. Lovecraft Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath v, in Dreams in Witch-house & Other Weird Stories (2004) 224 The assembled chiefs all meeped in unison and began glibbering orders to the crowds of ghouls and night-gaunts.
1968 A. C. Clarke 2001: Space Odyssey ii. 20 During the merciless heat of noon one of the frailer females collapsed... Her companions gathered round her, twittering and meeping sympathetically.
1998 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. (Nexis) 22 Apr. 3 Every morning now, for four mornings, she has woken up at 4:30 and wandered through the house ‘meeping’ as we call it. Constantly crying out with short meows.
2008 A. D. Foster Quofum iv. 59 On shore, unseen animal life squealed and meeped, whistled and sang and hooted.
Derivatives
ˈmeeping n.
ΚΠ
1927 H. P. Lovecraft Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath v, in Dreams in Witch-house & Other Weird Stories (2004) 225 The absence of ghoulish meeping shewed that the torture of the prisoners was over for the nonce.
2007 C. Rogers Music of Razors viii. 167 The room filled with a cacophony of meeping and murbling and a dozen or more Nabbers materialized out of nowhere.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.int.1927v.1927