bleep

Onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbliːp/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːp

bleep (countable and uncountable, plural bleeps)

1. A brief high-pitched sound, as from some electronic device.
3. (euphemistic) A general euphemism for any expletive.

   What the bleep are you doing?

   • 1990 February 4, Beth Elliott, “Not Men's Property”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 3:

     Who the bleep are you, Bob Kavin, to tell lesbians whether or not it's "appropriate" for us to gather together as women?

4. (music, slang, uncountable) A broad genre of electronic music with goth and industrial influences, as opposed to traditional gothic rock.
   • 2005, Jennie Kermode, “What is gothic?”, in alt.gothic (Usenet):

     See, there are a huge number of people in this city who look like goths and talk the talk and claim to enjoy much of the same music I do, so it confuses me somewhat that the clubs all play bleep. I would have thought there would be enough people to make something else work.

   • 2005, oldgoth, “Theaving^[sic] Goths”, in uk.people.gothic (Usenet):

     A number of nights now steer away from the EBM of yesteryear. The scene is alive and kicking with plenty of new bands that aren't reliant on synths. All you have to do is look. At InsanitoriuM we have a large, young, crowd that would up and leave if we started playing bleep at them, and we're not alone.

5. (medicine, UK) A pager, usually one held by a doctor or nurse in a hospital.

• bleep test

bleep (third-person singular simple present bleeps, present participle bleeping, simple past and past participle bleeped)

1. (intransitive) To emit one or more bleeps.

   The robot bleeped to acknowledge its new instructions.

   • 2024 January 24, Pip Dunn, “Adventure on a GA Class 20 Aventra”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 52:

     The basic toilet has quite a heavy door, which then bleeps to remind you to lock it - with a nice, peace of mind, manual lock.

2. (transitive) To edit out inappropriate spoken language in a broadcast by replacing offending words with bleeps.

   Synonym: blip

3. (medicine, UK) To contact someone by pager.

   If his condition gets any worse, please bleep the registrar on call.

• plebe