kip

Meanings

Noun

• The untanned hide of a young or small beast, such as a calf, lamb, or young goat.
• A bundle or set of such hides.
• A unit of count for skins, 30 for lamb and 50 for goat.
• The leather made from such hide; kip leather.
• A place to sleep; a rooming house; a bed.
• Sleep, snooze, nap, forty winks, doze.
• A very untidy house or room.
• A brothel.
• A unit of force equal to 1000 pounds-force (lbf) (4.44822 kilonewtons or 4448.22 newtons); occasionally called the kilopound.
• A unit of weight, used, for example, to calculate shipping charges, equal to half a US ton, or 1000 pounds.
• A unit of mass equal to 1000 avoirdupois pounds.
• The unit of currency in Laos, divided into 100 att, symbol ₭, abbreviation LAK.
• A piece of flat wood used to throw the coins in a game of two-up.
• A basic skill or maneuver in artistic gymnastics on the uneven bars, parallel bars, high bar and still rings used, for example, as a way of mounting the bar in a front support position, or achieving a handstand from a hanging position. In its basic form, the legs are swung forward and upward by bending the hips, then suddenly down again, which gives the upward impulse to the body.
• A sharp-pointed hill; a projecting point, as on a hill.

Verb

• To sleep; often with the connotation of a temporary or charitable situation, or one borne out of necessity.
• To snatch; take up hastily; filch
• To hold or keep (together)
• To conduct oneself; act
• To perform the kip maneuver.

Origin

• 1325–75, Middle English kipp, from Middle Dutch kip, from Middle Low German kip ("pack, bundle of hides").
• 1760–70, probably related to Danish kippe ("dive, hovel, cheap inn") and Middle Low German kiffe ("hovel"). From the same distant Germanic root as cove.
• From Middle English kippen, from Old Norse kippa. Cognate with Norwegian kippe, Swedish kippa; Dutch kippen.
• 1910–15, Americanism, abbreviated from kilo + pound.
• 1950–55, from Lao ກີບ.
• Unknown. Perhaps related to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialect kep, to toss up into the air. Or else, perhaps related to German Kippe ("stub").
• Unknown.