Definition of "hip"

in all bridges preference will be given to designs having struts for hip verticals

1887, John Alexander Low Waddell, General Specifications for Highway Bridges of Iron and Steel

Ike explained to me that the Mexican government issued permits to hips allowing them a definite quantity of morphine per month at wholesale prices.

1953, William Lee [pseudonym; William S. Burroughs], Junkie, New York: Ace Books

1. BROTHER. […] What doo you gather there?OLD MAN. Hips and Hawes, and stickes and strawes, and thinges that I gather on the ground my sonne.

c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595

The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips;The bounteous housewife, Nature, on each bushLays her full mess before you.

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

I am also starting a folk-entourage school where you can go into gladitorial training to hang out in hip crowds with budding young folk stars.

1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That Was The Year That Weren't”, in Cavalier

Everybody's saying that / Hell's the hippest way to go / Well, I don't think so / But I'm gonna take a look around it, though

1971, Joni Mitchell (lyrics and music), “Blue”, in Blue

“Saturday Night” has an explicitly hip, cynical outlook, coupled with an impressive amount of freedom.

1975 October 27, Jeff Greenfield, “Ragged but Funny”, in New York, volume 8, number 43, page 65

One of the saints in my life is this woman named Imogene Hill, who was a fourth-grade teacher who taught this advanced class. She got hip to my whole situation in about a month and kindled a passion in me for learning things.

1985 February, David Sheff, “Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs”, in Playboy‎, archived from the original on 19 March 2019

Rudolph promoted Stevens Pass with restless zeal. In seven years there, he helped turn a relatively small, roadside ski area into a hip destination.

2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time‎

No doubt, too, Sand must have hipped him quietly in a whisper somewhere what was happening with the lover

1958, Jack Kerouac, The Subterraneans, page 90

She's a volunteer, hipped on civil rights, another do-gooder, evidently with a private pile since she takes no pay

1964, Rex Stout, A Right to Die, page 78

She went ape over Chris. She'd go downtown and come home with shopping bags loaded with fine dresses and underclothes for herself and her sisters. Later she hipped Chris to boosting

1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp, page 223

The guy hips himself to so many things.

2009, Sean Rogers, Pynchon and comics