lip

«lip» in Mova's school dictionary: the two soft edges around your mouth — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a lip, lips)

meaning for a pupil

1) Your lips are the two soft edges around your mouth. tree →

2) The lip of something, like a jug, cup or cliff, is its edge or rim. tree →

3) Informally, «lip» means rude talk: don't give me any lip. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lips help you eat, speak and make sounds like «p», «b» and «m»; lips have lots of nerves and feel things easily. In health lessons lips can get chapped (dry and cracked) in cold or windy weather, and lip balm helps; lips swelling suddenly can be a sign of an allergy. In stories a trembling lip shows someone is about to cry; biting your lip shows you are holding back words. Phrases: lip balm, bite your lip, read someone's lips, my lips are sealed (I'll keep a secret), stiff upper lip.

examples

• My lips are dry in the cold wind. tree →
• Put some lip balm on your lips. tree →
• Her bottom lip trembled and she started to cry. tree →
• My lips are sealed; I won't tell anyone about the surprise party. tree →
• Some deaf people can read lips. tree →
• The lip of the jug helps you pour without spilling. tree →
• He bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. tree →
• If your lips swell after eating, tell an adult straight away. tree →
• The cup was placed to Sir Philip's lips. tree →

note

Countable: one lip, two lips (top lip and bottom lip). «Lip-read» or «read lips» means understanding speech by watching the mouth. Do not confuse with «leap» (a big jump). «My lips are sealed» is fine for a nice surprise, but not for unsafe secrets.

In the corpora

• Warm-ups such as lip trills and humming help the breath and the voice muscles work without strain.
• Brass players buzz their lips into the mouthpiece; blowing without buzzing gives just a hiss.
• Brass players buzz their lips into the mouthpiece; the trumpet, trombone, horn and tuba are brass.
• The trunk is the elephant's nose and upper lip joined together and grown very long.
• Snakes shed their skin in one piece as they grow, starting at the lips, and their eyes turn cloudy blue just before.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «lip» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.