sipping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of sip.

   The cat was sipping water from the dripping faucet.

   Guests stood around sipping champagne and chatting quietly.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final p, as short verbs ending in a single consonant do: sip becomes sipping. It works as the progressive (was sipping water) and as a gerund naming the act. It can take an object or stand alone, and it stretches figuratively to anything consumed slowly. In dated Scottish and American use, the same spelling could also mean seeping.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of drinking liquid in small mouthfuls.

   The deliberate sipping of fine whiskey is part of the tasting experience.

   Frequent sipping of water throughout the day keeps you hydrated.

   Oppositegulping, guzzling

   Note

   Unlike the gerund in the verb form, this noun can be counted and made plural: sippings names a series of separate small drinks. Theophilus Thompson's Annals of Influenza (1852) prescribes "frequent sippings of some tepid pectoral drink" as part of a cure. Use the plural when the separate drinks matter, and the singular for the habit or manner of drinking.

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