Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Keenly aware of or knowledgeable about the latest trends or developments.
  • adjective Very fashionable or stylish.
  • interjection Usually used to begin a cheer.
  • noun The laterally projecting prominence of the pelvis or pelvic region from the waist to the thigh.
  • noun A homologous posterior part in quadrupeds.
  • noun The hip joint.
  • noun Architecture The external angle formed by the meeting of two adjacent sloping sides of a roof.
  • noun A rose hip.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fruit of the dogrose or wild brier, Rosa canina or R. rubiginosa.
  • To sprain, gall, or injure the hip of. In the extract the sense is doubtful.
  • In architecture, to furnish with a hip: as, to hip a roof.
  • To throw (one's adversary) over the hip.
  • To hop.
  • noun A morbid depression of spirits; melancholy: usually in the plural.
  • noun The projecting part of an animal formed by the side of the pelvis and the upper part of the femur, with the flesh covering them; the upper part of the thigh; the haunch.
  • noun The hip-joint.
  • noun In entomology, the coxa or first joint of an insect's leg.
  • noun In architecture: The external angle at the junction of two sloping roofs or sides of a roof.
  • noun The rafter at the angle where two sloping roofs or sides of a roof meet. See cuts under hip-roof and jack-rafter
  • To render hypochondriac or melancholy: scarcely used except as in the participial adjective hipped. See hipped.
  • An exclamation used in applauding or giving the signal for applause: as, hip, hip, hurrah!

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) The fruit of a rosebush, especially of the English dog-rose (Rosa canina); called also rose hip.
  • noun (Bot.) the dog-rose.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To throw (one's adversary) over one's hip in wrestling (technically called cross buttock).
  • transitive verb To make with a hip or hips, as a roof.
  • transitive verb See Hip roof, under Hip.
  • noun colloq. See hyp, n.
  • adjective Aware of the latest ideas, trends, fashions, and developments in popular music and entertainment culture; not square; -- same as hep.
  • adjective Aware of the latest fashions and behaving as expected socially, especially in clothing style and musical taste; exhibiting an air of casual sophistication; cool; with it; -- used mostly among young people in the teens to twenties.
  • noun The projecting region of the lateral parts of one side of the pelvis and the hip joint; the haunch; the huckle.
  • noun (Arch.) The external angle formed by the meeting of two sloping sides or skirts of a roof, which have their wall plates running in different directions.
  • noun (Engin) In a bridge truss, the place where an inclined end post meets the top chord.
  • noun (Anat.) the innominate bone; -- called also haunch bone and huckle bone.
  • noun (Anat.) the pelvic girdle.
  • noun (Anat.) the articulation between the thigh bone and hip bone.
  • noun (Arch.) a finial, ball, or other ornament at the intersection of the hip rafters and the ridge.
  • noun (Arch.) a molding on the hip of a roof, covering the hip joint of the slating or other roofing.
  • noun (Arch.) the rafter extending from the wall plate to the ridge in the angle of a hip roof.
  • noun (Arch.) a roof having sloping ends and sloping sides. See Hip, n., 2., and Hip, v. t., 3.
  • noun a tile made to cover the hip of a roof.
  • noun to have or get the advantage of; -- a figure probably derived from wresting.
  • noun to overthrow completely; to defeat utterly.
  • interjection Used to excite attention or as a signal; as, hip, hip, hurra!

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The fruit of a rose.
  • verb transitive, slang To inform, to make knowledgeable.
  • noun anatomy The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English hype.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hipe, from Old English hēope.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English hepe, heppe, hipe, from Old English hēope, from Proto-Germanic *heupōn (compare Dutch joop, German Hiefe, Norwegian dialect hjúpa 'briar'), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- 'briar, thorn' (compare Old Prussian kaāubri 'thorn', Lithuanian kaubrė̃ 'heap').

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably a variant of hep. Maybe from Wolof hepi ("to see") or hipi ("to open one’s eyes").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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 *ḱeu̯bh₂- (compare Welsh cysgu ‘to sleep’, Latin cubāre ("to lie"), Ancient Greek κύβος (kýbos, "hollow in the hips"), Albanian sup ("shoulder"), Sanskrit śupti ‘id.’), from *keu-, *keu̯ə- (“to bend”). More at high.

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Examples

  • During the jive era of the late 1930s and early 1940s, African-Americans began to use the term hip to mean "sophisticated, fashionable and fully up-to-date".

    Archive 2007-10-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • ‡ The term hip-hop also refers to the speech, fashions, and personal style adopted by many youths, particularly in urban areas.

    hip-hop 2002

  • Modern historians trace the term "hip" at least back to the Jazz Age.

    News 2011

  • War, Inc. John Cusack's new movie about war-2/2 classic roc belushi - hip hop jedi knight - the meaning behind the term hip op jediknight

    WN.com - Articles related to Brazil ruling party nominates Silva chief of staff 2010

  • That's why I use the term hip-hop community, because that's the subculture group that uses it.

    Techdirt 2009

  • And yes, if you understood what I meant by the word "hip" you've just dated yourself.

    John Blumenthal: Are You Trying Too Hard to Make Your Kids Think You're Cool? John Blumenthal 2011

  • Drug dealer turned publisher Vickie Stringer addressed a booksellers 'conference in Chicago last week, trying to explain the runaway success of her line of what she calls hip-hop novels.

    IT'S GANGSTA LIT 2007

  • Used the word "hip" with an apparent lack of irony?

    The Guardian World News Hadley Freeman 2011

  • "I've been made into a stereotype, I'm not what you call hip, I wear glasses," states the ad, which, contrary to its earlier star studded effort featuring Gates and Seinfeld aims to appeal to everyday users.

    Fast Company 2008

  • "I've been made into a stereotype, I'm not what you call hip, I wear glasses," states the ad, which, contrary to its earlier star studded effort featuring Gates and Seinfeld aims to appeal to everyday users.

    Fast Company Fast Company staff 2008

Comments

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  • I'm so hip I can't see over my pelvis. - Z. Beeblebrox.

    November 26, 2007

  • What is hip? — Tower of Power

    September 29, 2008