blip

1 of 2

noun

1
: a trace on a display screen (such as an oscilloscope)
especially : a spot on a radar screen
2
: a short crisp sound
3
: an interruption of the sound received in a radio or television program or occurring in a recording as a result of blipping
4
: a transient sharp movement up or down (as of a quantity commonly shown on a graph)
5
: something relatively small or inconsequential within a larger context
made only a blip on the political scene

blip

2 of 2

verb

blipped; blipping

transitive verb

: to remove (recorded sound) from a recording so that there is an interruption of the sound in the reproduction
a censor blipped the swear words

Examples of blip in a Sentence

Noun The approaching ship appeared as a blip on the screen. the blips, buzzes, and bleeps of a video game The company's financial problems were just a temporary blip.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Some analysts see the hotter-than-expected January numbers as a mere blip. CBS News, 6 Mar. 2024 The Maldives, a tiny tourism-dependent country of 500,000 people, barely registers as a blip alongside India and China, the world’s most populous nations. Maahil Mohamed Elke Scholiers, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024 There's always that 'one person' In a sea of blue at Buddy’s Pizza off Woodward, Michael Boyce, 54, is a blip of red, decked out in a San Francisco 49ers cap, shirt and jacket. Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press, 28 Jan. 2024 Ingenuity, resembling a box with four legs and parasol of rotor blades and solar panel, will live out its final days idle but emitting periodic blips of data before losing contact with the rover as Perseverance moves farther away. Joey Roulette and Steve Gorman, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Jan. 2024 Yet millions of these could transform that blip into a massive difference. IEEE Spectrum, 12 Dec. 2023 This downturn appears not to be just a temporary blip, but a sign of deeper structural issues within the Chinese economy. Frank Holmes, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024 Not to mention that African music, and the equally booming música Mexicana scene, barely made a blip outside of their siloed categories. Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 5 Feb. 2024 The big question is if this is just a blip, or signs of a bigger shift among consumers as higher interest rates and a weaker economic backdrop discourage consumers from making big-ticket purchases. Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 24 Jan. 2024
Verb
Again and again, followed by hard braking—courtesy of Wilwood—and a downshift or two after a bit of throttle blipping to rev match. Michael Van Runkle, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 Ever since Timothée Chalamet blipped onto the greater public’s radar with Call Me by Your Name in 2017, the young actor has proven to be versatile, charismatic, remarkably unselfconscious, and able to both amplify and weaponize his attractiveness (see: Lady Bird or, better yet, Bones and All). David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 Dec. 2023 In Avengers: Infinity War, he got blipped (snapped? dusted?) with half of the world’s population after Thanos gained all six Infinity Stones. Time, 22 June 2023 Shake that features a shimmery, blipping pop backdrop. Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2023 With a Final Four berth on the line, Gallegos viewed a patchy livestream of the taut Aztecs-Creighton game … until the screen blipped out. Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2023 With it off, the additional footwork required to blip the revs yourself feels more natural, though not as consistent. Austin Irwin, Car and Driver, 21 Nov. 2022 Earlier this year, the transponders that will blip data back to Earth were found to be faulty and had to be repaired. Quanta Magazine, 3 Dec. 2021 The little black and white boxes that blip into view are telemetry blocks – an artifact from compressing the image and sending it back down to Earth. Mike Wehner, BGR, 17 May 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blip.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

imitative

First Known Use

Noun

1945, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1968, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of blip was in 1945

Dictionary Entries Near blip

Cite this Entry

“Blip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blip. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

blip

noun
ˈblip
: a spot on a screen
a radar blip

More from Merriam-Webster on blip

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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