bleep
/bliːp
/noun
1A short high-pitched sound made by an electronic device as a signal or to attract attention: when your food was ready for eating, the microwave told you so with five bleeps...
- These radio units help skiers caught in an avalanche to locate each other, emitting a stream of high-pitched bleeps like a comedy sci-fi homing device.
- A barber has become so annoyed by mobile phone use in his shop that he has started issuing fines every time he hears a bleep or electronic jingle.
- The usual Gomez sound, a psychedelic blend of blues-rock and electronic bleeps and bloops, was unique enough to satisfy multiple listenings on previous albums.
1.1A short high-pitched electronic sound used in broadcasting as a substitute for a censored word or phrase.So maybe they won't have the next hit single - if for no other reason than the bleeps censoring out the drug references could constitute a whole new backbeat on their own....
- Granted, this discussion is peppered with censors' bleeps and is incomprehensible at times due to Ozzy's slurred speech, but it's heartfelt and earnest all the same.
- Clay's appearance, broadcast with a five-second delay to allow bleeps, drew heavy advance publicity because of the boycotts.
1.2British another term for bleeper.A third, who had severe emphysema, told me after five call-ups to the transplant unit that he could no longer tolerate the emotional roller coaster involved in carrying the transplant bleep and withdrew himself from the programme....
- I don't carry a bleep. I'm the consultant.
- At the moment it is expected that the nurse practitioner will carry a bleep and will take all phone calls requesting emergency appointments.
verb [no object]
1(Of an electronic device) make a short high-pitched sound or sounds as a signal or to attract attention: the screen flickered for a few moments and bleeped...
- Machines bleep, robots whir, and speakers drone emotionless commands like so many HAL 9000s.
- Front and rear parking sensors bleep neurotically at you the moment you even think about colliding with anything.
- Even so, seeing him in the hospital is very difficult because his heart rate keeps dropping and you can see all the monitors bleeping and screaming.
1.1 [with object] British Summon (someone) with a bleeper: I’ll get Jan to bleep you if I need transport...
- On the first occasion I was covering the wards when I was bleeped regarding a patient who had developed blue hands.
- When I was a house officer I was bleeped to a ward to watch a man pass the last few moments of his life.
- Then Matt began to bleep Mike with the walky talky.
1.2 [with object] Substitute a bleep or bleeps for (a censored word or phrase): I may have to bleep a few words in his testimony...
- Suffice it to say many words were bleeped out, and it was quite hilarious.
- Ironically, after years of glamorising gun crime and ghetto culture, Rockstar has finally produced a genuinely subversive game… and one where swear words are bleeped out.
- It's a radio edit so the naughty words are bleeped out, but it was all I had handy on the computer so it will have to do!
Origin
1950s: imitative.