▪ I. bleep, n.
(bliːp)
[Echoic.]
1. a. A thin, high-pitched blipping sound, spec. one made by electronic equipment.
| 1953 N.Y. Herald-Tribune 2 Aug. ii. 5 The bleeps of Geiger counters make ‘penny stocks’ on the country's exchanges palpitate into investors' bonanzas. 1957 Daily Mail 7 Oct. 1/1 From now on we shall be living in a different world, for science ‘fiction’ has become fact. Those eerie ‘bleeps’ from outer space tell us that. Ibid. 1/2 Instead of the quick bleep-bleep sound it [sc. the Russian earth satellite] made on the first 24 hours of its journey, New York radio stations reported a long, continuous b-l-e-e-p as it crossed the United States. 1958 Times 29 July 10/7 The driver honked his horn. ‘Bleep, bo-o-oop, parp.’ 1966 New Scientist 497/2 The slow pattern of bleeps from the loudspeaker..suddenly changes. |
b. The sound made by a bleeper or paging device; a radio signal used to communicate with someone carrying a bleeper. c. = bleeper.
| 1975 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 22 Apr. 1/7 If a Member is required urgently a switchboard operator will give him..a ‘bleep’ and relay any messages. 1982 Sci. Amer. Nov. 11 Thanks to the national radio paging system, a doctor can be alerted to an emergency by a ‘bleep’, carried about his person. 1985 Medical Woman Spring 15 We share a bleep. 1986 Daily Tel. 19 May 26/8 A bleep to a maintenance man working away from his van..can provide the signal to call base via PMR. |
2. a. A bleeping sound edited over and replacing a taboo-word or undesirable expression used during a recorded interview, etc. Cf. blip n. b. The word (written or spoken) used to replace such an expression.
| 1968 Life 12 Apr. 18/4 The Rowan and Martin staff, they say, is so free-wheeling that a fulltime censor has been assigned{ddd}Over in Smothersville, similar ballyhoo is made over every insignificant bleep. 1975 Pix (Austral.) 27 Nov. 2/2, I fail to see why bleeps are used in radio and television interviews to cover up ‘unsavoury’ words and expressions. As soon as the bleep is heard the listeners immediately think—Oh, a four-letter word. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. b10/3, I..stand up there with my coffee or cola or ginger ale and (bleep) away on an emotional high. His talk is full of idiom requiring bleeps for family readers. 1978 Rugby World Apr. 36/2 When that particular sequence..eventually appeared on BBC 2.., it miraculously contained only two bleeps. 1981 Gossip (Holiday Special) 50/3 I've never believed off-Broadway and that kind of theatre is only for friends and ‘we're better than the others’ stuff. I've always believed it is great horse (bleep). 1983 N.Y. Times 22 May ii. 1/1 It looks like the same old (bleep) to me. 1984 Ibid. 8 Jan. 2a 3/1 On Tuesday night at 8, ABC will present ‘Foul Ups, Bleeps and Blunders’. |
▪ II. bleep, v.
[f. the n.]
1. intr. To make a thin, high-pitched blipping sound or ‘bleep’.
| 1957 Times 11 Oct. 11/6 There is a Soviet satellite bleeping round the earth. 1958 Daily Mail 15 Aug. 2/5 Every dinghy was fitted with a radio which bleeps out S O S at the touch of a simple switch. |
2. trans. To replace (a taboo expression used in a recorded interview, etc.) with a bleep; to censor. Freq. with out.
| [1968 N.Y. Times 29 Apr. 86 Some of his nightly quips are ‘blipped’ from tape before air time.] 1973 Houston (Texas) Chron. Texas Mag. 14 Oct. 2/3 It offends me to have to ‘bleep’ most of it, because that detracts from our goal of telling it like it is. 1976 TV Times (Brisbane) 12 June 13/3 Unfortunately..somebody forgot to bleep the words out. 1981 Daily Tel. 24 Sept. 19/3 One swearword..would be muted... Four others would be ‘bleeped’. 1983 Financial Times 7 Apr. 11/2 Radio stations broadcasting Parliament should use a panic button to bleep out defamatory comments in live broadcasts. |
3. a. To summon or alert (someone carrying a bleeper), to ‘page’.
| 1976 Telegraph (Brisbane) 14 Feb. 2/6 The Federal Government is to spend more than $60,000 so that Members of Parliament can be ‘bleeped’ to notify them of telephone calls when they are out of their offices. 1980 Daily Tel. 9 Apr. 19/5 People carrying them [sc. bleepers] can be ‘bleeped’ by dialling a ten-figure number. 1983 Listener 4 Aug. 34/3 It will even bleep the investor strolling round the golf course. |
b. To transmit (information) by electronic means, esp. between computer terminals. Of an electronic device: to signal (a message).
| 1978 Washington Post 5 Mar. m3 That is the increasingly clear message being bleeped to major U.S. companies. 1983 Ibid. 16 June a18/3 At the wheel was a black Memphis businessman, his ‘fuzzbuster’ radar speed trap detector bleeping caution. |
Hence ˈbleeping ppl. a., that bleeps; also (slang) = bleeding ppl. a.; also as vbl. n.; bleeped (bliːpt) ppl. a., alerted by bleeper.
| 1957 Observer 13 Oct. 12/3 The suggestion has been that most of the weight comes from batteries to power the bleeping radio transmitters. 1966 New Scientist 24 Feb. 497/1 The noctule gives a strong response..with a slow and rather deliberate liquid ‘bleeping’ note. 1968 B. Norman Hounds of Sparta xvii. 187 The bleeping grew fainter or stronger depending on his position. 1982 Financial Times 1 Nov. 16/2 The systems could..tell the selectively ‘bleeped’ pager-wearer to..call the Pabx operator. 1983 Washington Post Mag. 6 Feb. 37/1 The whole bleeping menagerie of cathode critters. |