lip n.1
1. as communication.
(a) cheek, impertinence.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘The Present State of Bettyland’ in Potent Ally 29: Censures upon one another’s Dressing and Behaviour; Punctillio’s of Ceremonies when to give the Lip, and when to give the Cheek. | |
| Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 17 Aug. 61: Gag the rascal I say, gag him with a pump bolt and stop his damned lip. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 20 May 965/1: Mr. H. received some chaff, and not possessing the best temper in the world, could not stomach so much lip. | |
| Navy at Home II 22: D—n your young eyes, do you ‘give lip’ — I’ll break your d—d young head. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.Y. Times 30 Aug. 2/6: A new word. — A youth named Thompson tried yesterday for an assault, stated as a reason that the complainant was rather lippy, ie., full of lip. | |
| (ref. to 1819) Manchester Times 28 Oct. 2/1: Just published: The Bairnsla Fuak’s Annual [...] for 1819 [...] A Cumpany we Widda Wagjaw, Fanny Frumper, Betty Barrellweight and Lindy All-lip. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 28 June n.p.: A fellow named Sanborn undertook to give Tom Murphy some lip [and] received for his pains as pretty a flogging as was ever inflicted. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| London Dly News 25 Sept. 5/1: Did the driver think to ‘flummox’ us by his lip, because he thought we weren’t fly to him? | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 285: He looked out for a ‘cheeky answer,’ a ‘bit of lip’. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 40: Don’t you give me none o’ your lip. | |
| Leicester Chron. 5 July 12/4: I’ll smash your physog for you if you give me any more lip. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Truth (Sydney) 6 May. 1/3: So See took the trip in a different ship, / And the Governor kept his hair on, / Preferring to skip the Premier’s ‘Lip’. | |
| Regiment 9 July 229/3: ‘’Ere stow that lip. Come, now, church, chapel, or ’oly Roman’. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/3: Cheek & brass & brass and & lip, / Contemptuous to see. | |
| ‘Outside and Declined’, Sporting Times 8 Aug. 1/3: If other men give ‘lip,’ then there are consequences dire. | |
| ‘Hitched’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 78: This white-’aired pilot-bloke – but gives it lip. | |
| Black Gang 307: And if I ’ave any more o’ your lip, I’ll pull it off. | |
| Foveaux 73: Never take lip from any woman. Remember when you put ’er in ’er place, you’re doin’ some other poor cove a good turn. | |
| Reported Safe Arrival 126: An’ if I ’as any lip from these ’ere Sarf Africans, they’ll git a clip rahnd the lug-’ole. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 51: I don’t take no lip off no trim. | |
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 81: Any more lip from you and I’ll come and bash your face in. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 261: She was ghuddamned if shed take any lip from anybody. | |
| After Hours 211: Women’s Lib. Nothin’ but lip. | |
| Nam (1982) 165: ‘Why are we doing this?’ they ask me. ‘Because I say so. If I get any lip you suckers are running.’. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 4: lip – disrespect, backtalk. | |
 | Skins ser.1 ep.3 [TV script] Watch your lip . | |
| Disassembled Man [ebook] If she’s giving you lip [...] it is your duty to act with authority. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 81: The big mouth. He gave me some lip. | |
| (con. 1943) Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [T]here was no way he was going down like a cur, so he opened up with some lip. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] One was gamer than the other. She’d be full of lip. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Blood Miracles 106: ‘God but you’ve some lip on you’. | |
| Betoota-isms 200: You turn the key and the fucking starter just clicks at you like a cicada. Then you give it another go and it just gives you more lip. |
(b) (US) a lawyer, esp. in criminal practice [the concept of ‘talking back’ (as in cheekiness) in defence of a client].
| ‘The Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: lip, n. Lawyer. | |
| ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 145: The big lip. Mister Take the Witness. | |
| Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 195: Why don’t you go to the judge and tell him you don’t want the case and let him put another lip on the job? | |
| et al. DAUL 127/1: Lip. A lawyer. ‘The lip took a hundred skins (dollars) and never showed (appeared) in court.’. | |
| Pimp 42: Christ! I thought, a deep South Nigger ‘lip’. | |
| Animal Factory 157: Where is he? The lip? | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 239: A lip also is an attorney specializing in criminal cases. |
(c) (US) a loudmouth, a braggart.
| ‘Casualty’ in The Night in Question 15: Ryan was a lip, a big mouth. |
(d) lies, deception.
| Tattoo of a Naked Lady 8: She’s a sight for sore eyes, ain’t she? And if you think I’m giving you lip, you oughta see her go to town on a dick. |
2. in musical contexts.
(a) (US) musical ability, esp. as a player of brass instruments.
| Century Dict. n.p.: Lip ... the power or facility of adjusting one’s lips to the mouthpiece of a metal wind-instrument.[...] the term is used in a general sense to indicate his method and style. | |
| Your Broadway & Mine 20 Nov. [synd. col.] [S]language [...] in use among musicians. [...] To say that a musician has ‘lost his lip’ is to imply [...] that he has gotten stale. | |
| Metronome in Jazz Lex. (1964) 193: He’s got the ideas, but his lip’s weak yet. | |
| in Bop Fables 23: What condition is your lip in? [HDAS]. | |
| Bourbon Street Black 40: When he gets out, his lip is ‘down’ and he never quite makes the good gigs again. |
(b) a brass player.
| Gardens of Stone (1985) 6: The boy who had played Kennedy’s funeral — the best lip on post. |
In derivatives
impudent, cheeky.
| Modern Flash Dict. 21: Lipish – saucy. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 124/2: Lippish, saucy; Lipper, a saucy fellow. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835]. |
In phrases
to be verbose, talkative.
| All the Colours 101: The UDA [...] flapped their lips, talking large about things they’d never done. |
1. (also give lip, give some lip) to be cheeky.
| Autobiog. 20: I was [...] giving him plenty of lip. | |
| Sam Slick in England I 21: It’s them cussed navigators [rooks] [...] a givin’ lip to frighten folks. | |
| Lancaster Gaz. 19 Sept. 3/3: Complainants commenced to give us some ‘lip’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 10/1: Where’er you are, just ‘give it lip,’ / Smack Clootie on the crown, / And you will find, sir – take our tip – / They cannot put you down. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 12/3: Humph! Arouse the lay! / Let it trip! / Make it hum! Away! / Give it lip! / Quarrel over fence, / Had these two, / How it did commence / No one knew. / Both the parties shook / Fists, no doubt; / Sal, a hammer took, / Laid Liz. out. | |
| ‘Black Jack’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 102: Mulvaney has given O’Hara more lip than any man av us. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 24 Nov. 116: ‘Don’t you give me any more of your lip,’ he growled. | |
| Ulysses 302: Walking about with his book and pencil here’s my head and my heels are coming till Joe Cuffe gave him the order of the boot for giving lip to a grazier. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 161: I will, if he gives me any more of his lip. | |
| Yes We have No 173: The police [...] clobbered him for giving them lip. |
2. (Aus.) to speak out loud.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 9 May 6/4: Not only did Barnes slab up the sides of his well of poetry with this kind of thing, but he ‘gave it lip,’ so to speak, as he paced the floor of his prison house. | |
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.]. | |
| ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Dec. 150/1: ‘Sing that, you — sing it out, give it lip’. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 30 July 1s/2: Five times I’ve battled for a Council seat [...] I’ve given it lip where’er the voter lurks. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
3. to reprimand.
| Man-Eating Typewriter 114: Some [...] petty-bourgeoistard must’ve given him lip. |
to be cheeky.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Oct. 14/3: If I use blanky bad language it’s because you’ve got a blanky lip. |
don’t be so cheeky.
| Chester Chron. 19 Aug. 3/5: The plaintiff said [...] ‘Go about your business.’ Defendant replied, ‘Give us none of your lip, Stephenson’. | |
| Chester Chron. 30 Dec. 4/1: I’ve an idea, my man, that you’re one of the wharf-rats; and, if so, the less lip the better. | |
| Glance at N.Y. II ii: None of your lip, old fellow. | |
| Liverpool Mercury 22 July 5/4: You never saw me do any wrong, and I’ll have none of your lip. | |
| Black-Eyed Beauty 43: I want none of your lip, Miss Howard! | |
| Derbyshire Times 24 Sept. 3/6: I want none of your d—d lip. | |
| Bucks Herald 8 Oct. 6/1: Defendant said, ‘None of your lip,’ and [...] Defendant then hit the boy. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn (2001) Don’t you give me none o’ your lip. | |
| Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 37: ‘Two bob? Wot for?’ Lizer asked. ‘Cos I want it. None o’ yer lip.’. | |
| Newcastle Courant 9 June 2/1: We don’t want none of your lip. We’ve had enough of you. | |
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 19 Oct. 3/5: Now then [...] None of your lip, saucy. | |
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 16 Sept. 4/6: He said to me, ‘I don’t want none of your detonative lip!’. | |
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 14 Mar. 1/3: [headline] none of Your Lip! | |
| Bang To Rights 41: Now then none of your lip my lad. | |
| Guardian 14 Jan. 32: ‘Less lip,’ I says. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) oral sex.
| Prison Sl. 63: Lip Action also Lip Dancin’ and Lip Music Two men kissing each other. Also used to mean oral sex. |
(US) a very short cigarette butt.
| ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 29/1: LIP-BURNER. A private’s butts — or even less. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Lip burner, cigarette stub. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 127/1: Lip-burner. A very short cigarette butt. |
(US) a moustache.
| ‘Meat Bawl’ in Popular Detective Aug. 🌐 He has a lip canopy something like Schikelgruber’s. | |
| Eve. Standard (London) 29 Nov. 47/1: The assorted bristles and whiskers [...] lipbrows, soup-strainers, cookoie-dusters. |
(Aus.) insincerity.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 4/2: There, on the soil of their forefathers, husband and wife – father, mother, and children fill one common grave, thanks to British interference, which never (so lip-loyalty assures us) wages war against either the helpless or against woman. |
1. slangy speech.
| Prison Sl. 49: Lip Music Black, slang dialogue. |
2. see lip action
1. (US) of a lesbian, to perform cunnilingus; thus lip reading n.
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 123: lip reading (Vulg.) A prolonged bout of Cunnilingus between two women. |
2. to kiss.
| DSUE (8th edn) 687: later C.20. |
(US black) a moustache.
| Idler.co.uk Issue 30 🌐 Then there was Hitler, who certainly didn’t do much for the lip-rug. |
fellatio.
| DSUE (8th edn) 687: [...] adopted, mid-1960s, ex US. |
(US) a moustache.
| ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 44: Bishop and his lip shield are invited if they’ll set in a three-dollar seat. |
(S.Afr. gay) a lesbian.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle. |
(US) to indulge in passionate kissing.
| Queens’ Vernacular 86: to kiss passionately [...] mouth wrestling. | |
| Simpsons [Fox-TV] I’m tired of watching you guys lip-wrestle [HDAS]. | |
| ‘Could’ve Been’ Toukie’s Fanfiction Page 🌐 What’s wrong Elizabeth? Are you embarrassed to see the two of them lip wrestle? |
In phrases
see under dance v.
(US black) to keep quiet, to maintain a secret.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
(US) to be quiet, to stop being impertinent.
| Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth I 189: ‘You better keep your lips at home,’ said she, ‘if you know what’s good for yourself.’. |
(US black) to talk rudely, aggressively.
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 10: Look here chappie, don’t slip with the lip. Pause while I drop anchor and hip your ship. I’m straight able and know my way around. Just a fly time kitty who can naturally go to town. I might sound frantic real crazy or like a blow top. But I am going to crash much ether before I stop. |