hip

• enPR: hĭp, IPA^(key): /hɪp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪp

From Middle English hipe, hupe, from Old English hype, from Proto-Germanic *hupiz (compare Dutch heup, Low German Huop, German Hüfte), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (compare Welsh cysgu (“to sleep”), Latin cubāre (“to lie”), Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “hollow in the hips”), Albanian sup (“shoulder”), Sanskrit शुप्ति (śúpti, “shoulder”)), from *ḱew- (“to bend”). More at high. The sense "drug addict" derives from addicts lying on their hips while using certain drugs such as opium.

hip (plural hips)

2. (anatomy) The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue.
3. The inclined external angle formed by the intersection of two sloping roof planes.
4. In a bridge truss, the place where an inclined end post meets the top chord.
   • 1887, John Alexander Low Waddell, General Specifications for Highway Bridges of Iron and Steel:

     in all bridges preference will be given to designs having struts for hip verticals

5. (slang, possibly dated) A drug addict, especially someone addicted to a narcotic like heroin.
   • 1953, William Lee [pseudonym; William S. Burroughs], Junkie, New York: Ace Books:

     Ike explained to me that the Mexican government issued permits to hips allowing them a definite quantity of morphine per month at wholesale prices.

hip (third-person singular simple present hips, present participle hipping, simple past and past participle hipped)

1. (chiefly sports) To use one's hips to bump into someone.
2. (wrestling) To throw (one's adversary) over one's hip ("cross-buttock").
3. To dislocate or sprain the hip of, to fracture or injure the hip bone of (a quadruped) in such a manner as to produce a permanent depression of that side.
4. To make with a hip or hips, as a roof.

From Middle English hepe, heppe, hipe, from Old English hēope, from Proto-Germanic *heupǭ (compare Dutch joop, German Hiefe, Faroese hjúpa), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (“briar, thorn”) (compare Old Prussian kaāubri (“thorn”), Lithuanian kaubrė̃ (“heap”)).

hip (plural hips)

1. The fruit of a rose.

   Synonym: rosehip

   • c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, →OCLC, [line 175-178]:

     1. BROTHER. […] What doo you gather there?
     OLD MAN. Hips and Hawes, and stickes and strawes, and thinges that I gather on the ground my sonne.

   • c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips;
     The bounteous housewife, Nature, on each bush
     Lays her full mess before you.

• rosehip
• hipwort

Unknown or disputed. Probably a variant of hep; both forms are attested from the first decade of the 20th century.^[1] Some sources suggest derivation from Wolof hepi (“to see”) or hipi (“to open one’s eyes”).^[2] Others suggest connection to the noun, as opium smokers were said to lie on a hip.^[3] Neither of these suggestions is widely accepted, however.^[1]

hip (comparative hipper, superlative hippest)

1. (slang, dated) Aware, informed, up-to-date, trendy. [from early 20th c., popularized in 1960s]
   • 1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That Was The Year That Weren't”, in Cavalier:

     I am also starting a folk-entourage school where you can go into gladitorial training to hang out in hip crowds with budding young folk stars.

   • 1971, Joni Mitchell, “Blue”, in Blue:

     Everybody's saying that / Hell's the hippest way to go / Well, I don't think so / But I'm gonna take a look around it, though

   • 1975 October 27, Jeff Greenfield, “Ragged but Funny”, in New York, volume 8, number 43, page 65:

     “Saturday Night” has an explicitly hip, cynical outlook, coupled with an impressive amount of freedom.

   • 1985 February, David Sheff, “Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs”, in Playboy‎^[1], archived from the original on 19 March 2019:

     One of the saints in my life is this woman named Imogene Hill, who was a fourth-grade teacher who taught this advanced class. She got hip to my whole situation in about a month and kindled a passion in me for learning things.

   • 2012 December 26, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 November 2013:

     Rudolph promoted Stevens Pass with restless zeal. In seven years there, he helped turn a relatively small, roadside ski area into a hip destination.

• cool, groovy

• → Norwegian Nynorsk: hipp
• → Swedish: hipp

hip (third-person singular simple present hips, present participle hipping, simple past and past participle hipped)

1. (transitive, slang) To inform, to make knowledgeable.
   • 1958, Jack Kerouac, The Subterraneans, page 90:

     No doubt, too, Sand must have hipped him quietly in a whisper somewhere what was happening with the lover

   • 1964, Rex Stout, A Right to Die, page 78:

     She's a volunteer, hipped on civil rights, another do-gooder, evidently with a private pile since she takes no pay

   • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp, page 223:

     She went ape over Chris. She'd go downtown and come home with shopping bags loaded with fine dresses and underclothes for herself and her sisters. Later she hipped Chris to boosting

   • 1983 August 20, Mary Frances Gonzales, “Come Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 6, page 5:

     A friend just hipped me to your rag and its ^[sic] been a totally beautiful experience! Presently I'm imprisoned at the California Institute for Women and would like to receive my own issues of GCN.

   • 2009, Sean Rogers, Pynchon and comics:

     The guy hips himself to so many things.

• hep
• hip cat
• hipster
• hippy
• hippie

• hip-hop

hip

1. An exclamation to invoke a united cheer: hip hip hooray.

• PHI, PIH, phi

• hyp

From Proto-Albanian *skūpa, from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ- (“to push”). Compare German schieben (“to push”), English shove, Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”).

hip (aorist hipa, participle hipur)

1. to get on, ride, straddle
2. to rise, go up, climb into

• humb

Borrowed from American English hip.

hip (neuter hipt, plural and definite singular attributive hippe)

1. (colloquial) modern, in, fashionable, trendy

Borrowed from English hip.

• IPA^(key): /ɦɪp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hip
• Rhymes: -ɪp

hip (comparative hiper, superlative hipst)

1. genteel (stylish, elegant)
2. fashionable (characteristic of or influenced by a current popular trend or style)

• modieus

Borrowed from English hip.

• IPA^(key): /hɪp/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

hip (strong nominative masculine singular hipper, comparative hipper, superlative am hippsten or am hipsten)

1. (informal) hip, trendy

   Synonym: trendig

   • 2022 August 13, Fabian Schroer, “Zwangsräumungen wegen Brandschutzmängeln: Rausschmiss ohne Warnung”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Außerdem plant die Stadt ein hippes Innenstadtquartier mit Wohnungen für 4.500 Menschen. Erklärtes Ziel des Großprojekts: „Hochfeld zu beleben.“

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2025 September 26, Ulrike von Leszczynski, “Komplizierte Frage: Du oder Sie?”, in Westfalen-Blatt, number 225, published 27 September 2025, page WB08:

     Bestellen hippe junge Großstädter in Berlin ihren Hafermilch-Kaffee selbstverständlich per du, weichen andere Gäste auf ein „Habt Ihr?“ aus, um das Siezen des Baristas im coolen Ambiente zu umschiffen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Hipster

• “hip” in Duden online
• “hip” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

hip

1. (Late Middle English) alternative form of hipe

• IPA^(key): /xíːp/

hȋp m inan

1. moment

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nom. sing.	híp
gen. sing.	hípa
	singular	dual	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	híp	hípa	hípi
genitive (rodȋlnik)	hípa	hípov	hípov
dative (dajȃlnik)	hípu	hípoma	hípom
accusative (tožȋlnik)	híp	hípa	hípe
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	hípu	hípih	hípih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	hípom	hípoma	hípi

Contraction of hihip.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈhip/ [ˈhɪp̚]
• Rhymes: -ip
• Syllabification: hip

hip (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜒᜉ᜔) (obsolete)

1. alternative form of hihip

• Serrano Laktaw, Pedro (1914), Diccionario tagálog-hispano (overall work in Tagalog and Spanish), Intramuros, Manila: Ateneo de Manila., page 328

From Middle English hipe, from Old English hype, from Proto-West Germanic *hupi.

• IPA^(key): /hɪp/

hip

1. thigh

• Charles Vallancey (1788), “Memoir of the Language, Manners and Customs of an Anglo-Saxon Colony Settled in the Baronies of Forth and Bargie, in the County of Wexford, Ireland, in 1167, 1168 and 1169.”, in The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy‎^[4], volume 2, Royal Irish Academy, page 31