Blip

//blɪp// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small dot registered on electronic equipment, such as a radar or oscilloscope screen.

    "When the blip began to move up the oscilloscope screen, they followed again."

  2. 2
    a radar echo displayed so as to show the position of a reflecting surface wordnet
  3. 3
    A short sound of a single pitch, usually electronically generated.

    "Blip..Blip..Blip..Blip / There was that annoying noise again. Anger entered my subconscious as the dream came to an abrupt end."

  4. 4
    a sudden minor shock or meaningless interruption wordnet
  5. 5
    A brief and usually minor aberration or deviation from what is expected or normal. broadly

    "There's a chance this is just a viral blip, an intermittent spike of low-level virus that just happens in people on successful HIV treatment."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    An individual message or document in the Google Wave software framework. Internet, historical

    "When a participant has full access permissions to a wave, he or she can change the contents of all blips and reply within or after blips."

Verb
  1. 1
    To make a short beep sound. intransitive

    "The door blipped as I showed my electronic identity card and passed through."

  2. 2
    To change state abruptly, such as between off and on or dark and light, sometimes implying motion. informal, intransitive

    "1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure We got a call that Pat still on the respirator & that the doc said that now because the EEG was blipping, they couldn't unhook him from the respirator."

  3. 3
    Synonym of bleep (“to replace offending words in a broadcast recording with a tone”). transitive

    "[…] even walking off his own show once after an NBC censor had arbitrarily blipped a mildly risque joke from the day's tape."

  4. 4
    To apply the throttle briefly when downshifting, to provide a smoother gear transition and prevent wheelspin.

Etymology

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

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