lippen

• licken (dialectal)

From Middle English lipnen (“to trust”), of obscure origin. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English litnen (“to trust”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlíta, compare Swedish lita (“to trust, depend, rely on”).

lippen (third-person singular simple present lippens, present participle lippening, simple past and past participle lippened)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To entrust; trust to (someone/something).
2. (intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To trust; to expect; to depend or rely (on).

   Do not lippen to him! / I was lippening on you.

   • 1896, Margaret Oliphant, The Library Window:

     "And never lippen to what you see from the window," she said. "The eye is deceitful as well as the heart."

• Sense 2 usually with to or on.

• lippening
• mislippen

• nipple

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpən

lippen

1. plural of lip

From Old Saxon libbian (“to live, be alive”), though the semantic shift is unexplained.

lippen (past singular lipp, past participle lippt, auxiliary verb hebben)

1. to sob, to cry

• IPA^(key): [lɪpn]

lippen (third-person singular simple present lippens, present participle lippenin, simple past lippent, past participle lippent)

1. (archaic) to trust, entrust
2. to expect, count on

• mislippen