Definition: nipping

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

nipping
     adj 1: capable of wounding; "a barbed compliment"; "a biting
            aphorism"; "pungent satire" [syn: barbed, biting,
            pungent, mordacious]
     2: pleasantly cold and invigorating; "crisp clear nights and
        frosty mornings"; "a nipping wind"; "a nippy fall day";
        "snappy weather"; (`parky' is a British term) [syn: crisp,
         frosty, nippy, snappy, parky]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Nip \Nip\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nipped, less properly Nipt;
   p. pr. & vb. n. Nipping.] [OE. nipen; cf. D. niipen to
   pinch, also knippen to nip, clip, pinch, snap, knijpen to
   pinch, LG. knipen, G. kneipen, kneifen, to pinch, cut off,
   nip, Lith. knebti.]
   1. To catch and inclose or compress tightly between two
      surfaces, or points which are brought together or closed;
      to pinch; to close in upon.

            May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell, Down,
            down, and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such
            a traitress.                          --Tennyson.

   2. To remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting
      edges of anything; to clip.

            The small shoots . . . must be nipped off.
                                                  --Mortimer.

   3. Hence: To blast, as by frost; to check the growth or vigor
      of; to destroy.

   4. To vex or pain, as by nipping; hence, to taunt.

            And sharp remorse his heart did prick and nip.
                                                  --Spenser.

   To nip in the bud, to cut off at the verycommencement of
      growth; to kill in the incipient stage.
Nipping \Nip"ping\, a.
   Biting; pinching; painful; destructive; as, a nipping frost;
   a nipping wind.