Definition of "lip"

[…] thine owne lippes teſtifie againſt thee.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Job 15:6, column 1

[…] I twiſted my thighs, ſqueezed, and compreſs’d the lips of that virgin-ſlit […]

1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], pages 67–68

The cork sails over the garden wall and lands somewhere no one can see it. A crest of white spills over the lip of the bottle and Niall pours the wine into Elaine's glass.

2018, Sally Rooney, “Six Months Later (July 2013)”, in Normal People

Kevin Sutherland: I've had enough of your lip!

2008 May 1, Damon Beesley, Iain Morris, The Inbetweeners, I:ii: “Bunk Off”

Loose Tomato grew up tough. No one ever suspected that he was scared every time he walked down the street. Any lip and they got their ass kicked.

1977, Larry Mitchell, The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Calamus Books; republished New York: Nightboat Books, 2020, page 97

We landed at the head of Garden Island, which is situated near the middle of the river and on the lip of the Falls. On reaching that lip, and peering over the giddy height, the wondrous and unique character of the magnificent cascade at once burst upon us.

1894, David Livingstone, “Chapter VII”, in A Popular Account of Dr Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries

They toiled forward along a tiny path on the river’s lip. Suddenly it vanished. The bank was sheer red solid clay in front of them, sloping straight into the river.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Passion”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], part II, page 311

Looking to the east we could see Api and the mountains of west Nepal, shapely snow peaks in the distance, while in the immediate foreground, much lower but still dramatic, were the peaks of Panch Chuli IV and V (III was hidden by the lip of a huge cornice), Telkot and Nagling, all of them unclimbed, all steep and challenging.

1999, Harish Kapadia, “Ascents in the Panch Chuli Group”, in Across Peaks & Passes in Kumaun Himalaya, New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company, page 136

[…] a hand that Kings / Haue lipt, and trembled kiſſing.

c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene v], page 348, column 1

Our love was like the bright snow-flakes,Which melt before you pass,Or the bubble on the wine which breaksBefore you lip the glass;

1826 March, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, “Josephine”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 16, number 63, page 308

Once […] at dawn, I heard a bull-moose lipping tree-buds, and lay still in my blanket while the huge beast wandered past, crack! crash! and slop! slop!through the creek […]

1901, Robert W. Chambers, chapter 9, in Cardigan‎, New York: Harper, published 1902, page 130

[…] in a quick swirl the trout lipped a fly beneath the surface with that sort of gigantic delicacy of an elephant picking up a peanut.

1929, William Faulkner, “June Second 1910”, in The Sound and the Fury‎, New York: Vintage, published 1956, page 144

He moved the boat onward very slowly, lipping the glossy surface delicately with the light oars.

1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man‎, New York: Viking, page 405

It was very soothing and restful up there on the saloon deck, with no sound but the gentle lipping of the water as it rippled against the sides of the steamer.

1898, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 10, in The Tragedy of the Korosko‎, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 324

So on I went, and by my side, it seemed,Paced a great bull, kept from me by a brookWhich lipped the grass about it as it streamedOver the flagroots that the grayling shook;

1922, John Masefield, The Dream‎, London: Heinemann, page 9

The mist that lipped against the wall behind him hung overhead like a ceiling, hiding any stars.

2008, Julie Czerneda, Riders of the Storm‎, New York: Daw Books, Interlude, page 406

Below, the swollen Eden, lipping full from bank to bank, rolled yellow and surly to the sea.

1903, Robert Barr, Over the Border‎, London: Isbister, Book 4, Chapter 7, p. 375

The rest of the herd were grouped so close to the water’s edge that from time to time a lazy, leaden-green swell would come lipping up and splash them.

1911, Charles G. D. Roberts, “Mothers of the North”, in Neighbors Unknown‎, U.S. edition, New York: Macmillan, page 256

1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 22, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press; Compass Books edition, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, 1967, page 311

Above the spring the little statue of the god Myrddin, he of the winged spaces of the air, stared from between the ferns. Beneath his cracked wooden feet the water bubbled and dripped into the stone basin, lipping over into the grass below.

1973, Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills‎, New York: William Morrow, Book I, Chapter 3, p. 26

[…] old Macrae, of Adrfeulan Farm near by, had caused rude steps to be cut in the funnel-like hollow rising sheer up from the sloping ledge that lipped the chasm and reached the summit of the scaur.

1894, Fiona Macleod, chapter 4, in Pharais‎, Derby, page 88

It was a tiny stone house whose front window lipped the passing sidewalk where ever tramped the feet of black soldiers marching home.

1920, W. E. B. Du Bois, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, Chapter 9, p. 242

The woman had slipped to the very edge of the rock—the edge that lipped the fury of the Pit. She was half over. And she was slipping—slipping....

1924, James Oliver Curwood, chapter 3, in A Gentleman of Courage‎, New York: Cosmopolitan, page 36

Salt tears were coming, when I heard my name / Most fondly lipp’d […]

1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], page 48, lines 964–965

“Ah, I thought my memory didn’t deceive me!” he lipped silently.

1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIII, in The Woodlanders […], volume III, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, page 274

And as he read, lipping the words, he thought of his own boyhood […]

1980, Cyril Dabydeen, “Mammita’s Garden Cove”, in Caribbean New Wave: Contemporary Short Stories‎, London: Heinemann, published 1990, page 65

“I shall find the ball to the left of a patch of sword grass near the hole,” he said. “My second will lip the hole, I know it as well as if I could see the whole thing.”

1910 March, Fred M. White, “A Record Round”, in The Windsor Magazine

Lambert just missed his three; his putt lipped the hole before finishing two feet past it.

1999, J. M. Gregson, chapter 9, in Malice Aforethough‎, Sutton: Severn House, page 112