zeep, v.

zeep
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeep_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeepverb

## Earlier version

- zeep, v. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zeep mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the verb zeep. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the verb zeep?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0008
1890 | 0.0008
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0009
1930 | 0.001
1940 | 0.0008
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0007
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0005
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

### How is the verb zeep pronounced?

#### British English

/ziːp/
zeep

#### U.S. English

/zip/
zeep

### Where does the verb zeep come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the verb zeep is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeep is from 1886, in Gleanings Bee Culture.

It is also recorded as a noun from the 1870s.

zeep is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zeep n.

### Nearby entries

1. zed, n. c1175–
2. zedbed, n. 1954–
3. zedoary, n. Old English–
4. zedonk, n. 1961–
5. zee, n. 1580–
6. Zeelander, n. c1400–
7. Zeelandic, adj. 1802–
8. Zeelandish, adj. 1593–
9. Zeeman, n. 1897–
10. zeep, n. 1878–
11. zeep, v.1886–
12. zeeping, adj. 1895–
13. zef, adj. 1990–
14. zegadine, n. 1651–
15. zeilanite, n. 1815–
16. zein, n. 1820–
17. Zeiss, n. 1876–
18. zeitgeber, n. 1958–
19. zeitgeist, n. 1848–
20. zeitgeisty, adj. 1966–
21. zek, n. 1968–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
Etymon: zeep n.
< zeep n.

Compare zeeping adj. Compare also beep v. and earlier zip v.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1886–
   intransitive. To produce a high-pitched noise like that produced by friction or something travelling at speed; esp. (of an animal or bird) to give a call or emit a sound of this sort. Also occasionally transitive: to cause (something) to produce such a sound. Cf. zeep n.
   1. 1886

      > Queens do not ‘zeep, zeep’, for their own pleasure.

      Gleanings Bee Culture 1 June 450/1
   2. 1917

      > She could hear the queen in one hive ‘zeep-zeeping’.

      M. Webb, Gone to Earth xxviii. 234
   3. 1935

      > Tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway.

      S. Beckett, Echo's Bones & Other Precipitates
   4. 1962

      > Hundreds of frogs sang in harmony with the sounds of happy ducks ‘quacking’ and ‘zeeping’.

      Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gazette 11 April 18/1
   5. 1991

      > A cold, snowy, moonlit night when the snow ‘zeeps’ underfoot at every step.

      M. C. Gilfillan, Moods of Ohio Moons 14
   1. zeep 1886–
      intransitive. To produce a high-pitched noise like that produced by friction or something travelling at speed; esp. (of an animal or bird) to give a…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ziːp/
zeep

### U.S. English

/zip/
zeep

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also reduplicated.

## Frequency

zeep typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zeep is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zeep, v., 1880–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1880 | 0.0008
1890 | 0.0008
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0009
1930 | 0.001
1940 | 0.0008
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0007
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0005
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zeeping, adj. 1895–
   Designating a high-pitched noise like that…

zeep, v. was revised in June 2018.

zeep, v. was last modified in July 2023.