sip

When you sip something, you drink it slowly in small amounts. Sometimes it’s necessary to sip drinks that are very hot or very cold (like coffee or tea) or very strong (like whiskey or something alcoholic).

• Denise is sipping her coffee. It’s very hot.
• I like to sip on lemonade in the summertime.
• Take a sip of this. It’s very good. (Notice that "sip" in this sentence is a noun.)
• Oliver took a sip and made a strange face because his drink had so much alcohol in it.
• There’s a bird sipping water from a puddle.
• The baby is sipping milk from a bottle.

He likes to sip his drink through a straw.

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This page was first published on January 15, 2012. It was updated on December 23, 2016.