1381 in L. Morsbach Mittelengl. Originalurkunden (1923) 4 Jtem, a long laddre: also ii stoppes for melk ewen; jtem, ii Nippingires.

1547–8 in A. I. Cameron Sc. Corr. Mary of Lorraine (1927) 214 Quhar I traist in God your lordschip sall hyr off scharp neippyng.

c1550 J. Heywood Play of Wytty & Wyttles (1937) 120 For vnto the sotts nyppynge and beatynge Joyne the wytty laborers nypps and freatyng.

1595 J. Davidson Memorial of Life & Death of Two Worthye Christians sig. B6 Who be this sharp nipping are wrakked, While they themselues are farre worse stakked.

1606 True Relation Proc. at Arraignm. Late Traitors 25 For the blasting and nipping, both of the leaves, blossomes and buddes.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §388 In Orenges or Limons, the Nipping of their Rinde, giveth out their Smell the more.

1693 J. Evelyn tr. J. de La Quintinie Compl. Gard'ner ii. iv. xxxiii. 54 Pruning..with the Pruning-Knife, when the bare Trimming or Nipping is not sufficient.

1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (1721) II. 42 It..preserves it self the best from the nipping of Deer.

a1821 J. Keats Poet. Wks (1906) 304 By these loosen'd lips you have tasted the pips And fought in an amorous nipping.

1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. xxviii. 231 Wherever the nipping has caught two of the floes, they have been driven with a force inconceivable one above the other.

1883 G. R. Sims Ballads & Poems 125 We suffer from the nippings which the Arctic heroes plague.

1909 E. Adam Rep. High Court Justiciary 1906–8 5 333 He had examined the cake of shortbread, and the shape and ‘nipping’ at the edge were similar to that used in his bakery.

1924 E. A. Robinson Coll. Poems (1937) 938 The few vindictive nippings that amazed As much as they annoyed.

1992 Climber & Hill Walker (BNC) Aug. 44 Damage by nipping or cutting can occur when the booties are being fitted into the boot.

1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver 118 Course Wooll, Nippings, and Tarry Pitchmarkes, a little whereof, will doe an Acre of Land, there is great vertue in them.

1766 Compl. Farmer at Rag Woollen Rags, and the nippings of the pitch-marks upon sheep, are a singularly good manure.

1799 C. Cappe in Mrs. E. Gray Papers & Diaries York Family (1927) vi. 65 The Girls also spin and card what is called the Nippins or Waste Wool for Petticoats.

1876 C. C. Robinson Gloss. Words Dial. Mid-Yorks. 91/2 Nippin, a small nugget.

1900 W. Dickinson & E. W. Prevost Gloss. Dial. Cumberland 226/2 Nippen, a scrap of metal too insignificant for further use.

1880 R. Gillespie Nimmo's Hist. Stirlingshire (ed. 3) II. xlii Nothing can be more hurtful to both body and mind than the general habit during the day of ‘nipping’—the most mischievous phenomena [sic] of our social life—whether the liquor taken be bar sherry, petroleum whisky, or doctored gin.

1888 M. Clarke His Nat. Life xv. 450 Your ‘shakiness’ is the result of ‘nipping’, I'm afraid.

1917 H. H. Richardson Austral. Felix (1930) iv. ix. 361 She had never learnt to..look with a lenient eye on those who succumbed..whether these were but slaves of the nipping habit; or the eternal dram-drinkers who [etc.].

c1547 H. Latimer Let. in J. Foxe Actes & Monuments (1563) 1352/2 After you had perused that my nipping and vnpleasant letter.

1556 R. Robinson tr. T. More Utopia (ed. 2) sig. Liiii In this place semethe to be a nipping taunte.

1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 497 So much rayling in such scorpionlike nipping bitternesse.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Sarcasme, a biting taunt..cutting quip, nipping scoffe.

c1625 in J. H. Lefroy Mem. Bermudas (1882) 198 Noe reuilenge nor nipinge speaches wer to be vsed vpon any occasion whatsoeuer.

1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. x. 80 Nipping Bobs, derisive Quips.

a1729 E. Taylor Metrical Hist. Christianity (1962) 184 To Rosamund bad with her father drink In nipping scorn.

1791 F. Burney Jrnl. Aug. (1972) I. 49 She thinks the worst, & judges the most severely of all mankind, of any person I have ever known. It is..so ungenial, so nipping, so blighting, it sometimes damps all my pleasure in her society.

c1550 C. Bansley Treat. Pryde & Abuse of Women sig. A.iii^v We wonder moche at these nyppynge plages.

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxxiii. f. 408 Make him feele the smart at the verie time the deede is done, to the ende that the nipping griefe of pestilent treason..be not obscured.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. H2^v They applie bitter potions, nipping medicines, gnawing corrosiues.

?1602 Narcissus (MS Bodl. Rawl. poet. 212) (1893) 4 A certaine melancholye ingendered with a nippinge dolour overshadowed the sunne shine of my mirthe.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 512 A biting, nipping, or deuouring vsurie.

1659 D. Pell in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1878) V. Ps. cvii. 28 Brought low by pinching and nipping afflictions.

1825 T. L. Beddoes Let. to B. W. Procter in Poems (1851) I. 167 A cold and nipping ague on thine urn!

a1834 C. Lamb Pawnbroker's Daughter ii, in Compl. Wks (1875) 679 She was the only thing I had to love me—to bear me up against the nipping injuries of the world.

1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. iv. 43 Any initial difference from expectation causes nipping sensations of failure.

1998 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 8 Mar. I suffer from cystitis for which I get tablets, but still get occasional nipping feelings when I pass water.

1563 B. Googe Eglogs Epytaphes & Sonettes sig. H.iii^v To keepe her feete, from force of nyppynge colde.

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxvi. 140 As there be faire blossomes, so there be nipping frostes.

1598 B. Yong tr. J. de Montemayor Diana iii. 431 O fortunate and fair Valencia shore, Where nipping frost doth neuer hurt thy soile.

1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet i. iv. 2 It is an eager and An nipping winde.

a1625 J. Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) ii. i The air, The sharp and nipping air of our new climate.

1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agric. (1679) 134 The sharp nipping winds.

1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (1721) I. 308 Bleak Hills much exposed to high Winds and nipping Frost.

1764 T. Harmer Observ. Passages Script. i. §xvi. 40 Most nipping, pinching, unpleasant wind.

1799 W. Godwin St. Leon I. i. viii. 234 The air was changed from a long series of sultriness to a nipping cold.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth i, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. II. 18 It irks me the more to put on cold harness in this nipping weather.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. xii. 109 It was..nipping spring with an easterly wind.

1893 J. Rhoades Theresa 80 Where never nipping frost or cankering blight Profanes the flowers, Your little darling blows.

1923 R. Fry Let. 20 June (1972) II. 539 I've had a longish walk to the station in the nipping morning air.

1979 S. Bellow in Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. h1/1 Despite the sunshine the wind was stiff, the thermometer stood at 45 degrees, a nipping and an eager air.

1992 A. Thorpe Ulverton iii. 45 I have his day, being a nipping January, carried out to the fields my horse-piss and hogs'-piss, these being frozen.

1566 Banquett of Dainties 115 Than likewise in an other place, dame Fortune was definde: With nipping cuts for to deface, hir pompe and loftie minde.

1805 S. J. Pratt Fire & Frost i. iii. 398 With nipping pincers, pluck the stragglers out From his black brow.

1858 I. Holden & E. Hubner Brit. Patent 597 1 Two pairs of continuously operating and moving nipping surfaces.

1904 Amer. Naturalist 38 812 The molars are tubercular (crushing) teeth..the incisors small spatulate (nipping) teeth.

1568 Newe Comedie Iacob & Esau ii. ii. sig. C.ij So nipping, so tripping, so cocking, so crowyng?

1798 C. Stearns Mother of Family ii. vi. 107 But don't you think the folks in the right down genteel, nipping way, are more deceitful than others?

1795–6 W. Wordsworth Poet. Wks. (1849–50) i. 90 Ha! ha! 'tis nipping cold.

1803 W. H. Ireland Rhapsodies 185 The raven croak'd, the bat flew by, The wind blew nipping cold.

1874 Harper's Mag. Mar. 569 I found that the soft, treacherous dampness had gone, and it was nipping cold again.

1901 A. Austin Alfred the Great (ed. 5) ii. iii. 34 The norland flakes are flying fast, And o' 'tis nipping cold.

1917 H. H. Richardson Fortunes Richard Mahony I. 5 No matter how great the heat by day, the night would as likely as not be nipping cold.