hipped

1. 1
   adjective

   Having hips, or having a feature that resembles hips in its outward shape.

   The old farmhouse was crowned with a hipped roof on all four sides.

   The potter shaped a hipped jar that bulged outward at its waist.

   Note

   The anatomical word turned into a builder's one: hip plus -ed, so a hipped roof is one that has hips. On a roof the hip is the outer angle where two sloping faces meet, so a hipped roof slopes down to the walls on every side. The same spelling covers several unrelated words: the slang 'informed' adjective and the archaic 'gloomy' one have origins of their own.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of hip.

   An old bandmate hipped them to a venue that booked new acts.

   By the time we arrived, someone had already hipped the crowd to the surprise.

   Note

   One spelling hides several quite different verbs. Something hipped may have been bumped with the hip, thrown over the hip in wrestling, lamed in the hip (said of a horse or other quadruped), or built with hips (said of a roof). In slang it means tipped off, usually in the pattern hip someone to something. The p doubles before -ed, as it does in other short verbs that end in a single consonant.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having hips of a particular kind, such as broad, narrow, or high ones.

   The dancer was slender and high hipped, with a long line from waist to knee.

   Sculptors of that era carved broad-hipped figures as symbols of fertility.

   Note

   Rarely met on its own, this adjective usually follows a word that describes the hips: wide-hipped, broad-hipped, narrow-hipped. Before a noun the compound takes a hyphen, as in a wide-hipped woman. Where the plain 'having hips' sense notes that hips are there at all, this one describes their shape, and the modifier carries most of the meaning.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Aware of something and well informed about it.

   The new intern was already hipped to office politics within a week.

   Veteran collectors stay hipped to which records are about to spike in value.

   Similarwise, aware, savvy, informed

   Oppositeunaware, oblivious, ignorant, clueless

   Note

   Slang for being in the know, often followed by to: hipped to the scene, hipped to a trick. It comes from the same hip as the familiar adjective, and its edges blur. When Christopher Hitchens (1993) admits to being "a little hipped on the subject of Trotsky," knowing a lot and caring a lot are hard to separate. Compare the 'keen on' meaning.

5. 5
   adjectiveslangwith on

   Interested in or keen on something.

   Ever since the trip, he's been hipped on Japanese cooking.

   The whole class became hipped on astronomy after the eclipse.

   Similarkeen, hooked, obsessed, crazy, mad

   Oppositeindifferent, uninterested

   Note

   Here the keenness comes with a fixed preposition: this slang sense takes on, so a person is hipped on astronomy or hipped on Japanese cooking. The on is the quickest way to tell it from the 'informed' meaning, and it carries a shade of preoccupation, closer to a fixation than mild interest. Like its neighbor, it belongs in casual talk.

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