boop

See also: Boop

English

Etymology

Imitative; compare beep.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buːp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːp

Noun

boop (plural boops)

1. A low-pitched beeping sound.
   • 1989, Keith Peterson, The Trapdoor:

     When something important happened, a polite sort of boop went off, and up in the right-hand corner of your screen, above the copy, a word or two appeared: Urgent, Bulletin, Late Stocks, whatever.

   • 2008, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 281:

     Originally, computers' attempts at making music were recognizable by their beeps and boops and weird swoops. And to suggest that the rhythms laid down by a^[sic] electronic drummer were anything close to swingin' was humorous.

   • 2008 January 28, Jon Pareles, Nate Chinen, Kelefa Sanneh, Ben Ratliff, Ben Allison, “New CDs”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Guitars riffle precise chords and lilt through arpeggios, keyboards go boop, and every flick of a drumbeat is in place.

   • 2008 April 20, Jon Pareles, “Rasps, Boops, Snark and Sartre”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Santogold, from Brooklyn, may be mocking scene pretensions, defending the creative impulse or both in her single, “L.E.S. Artistes,” with its drumstick-clicking beat, electro boops and dance-rock chorus.

2. (colloquial) A gentle or playful tap or strike, especially on the nose.
   • 2023 October 12, Edgar Momplaisir, “A Few Badgeys More” (9:19 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks‎^[3], season 4, episode 7, spoken by Badgey (Jack McBrayer):

     “Boop, on the nose! Boop, on the nose! Boop, on the nose!” “He's bypassing our shields. We can't take many more boops.” “Thanks to Father giving me full access to Starfleet data systems, I know all possible shield frequencies. Boop!”

Verb

boop (third-person singular simple present boops, present participle booping, simple past and past participle booped)

1. (intransitive) To produce a low-pitched beeping sound.
   • 2009 July 20, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times‎^[4]:

     The music on “LP” is almost entirely unnatural, booping and puffing, buzzing and ticking in tones no acoustic instrument would make.

2. (transitive, colloquial) To strike gently or playfully; to bop (especially on the nose).
   • 2013, Kate Danley, Maggie on the Bounty:

     He spun around and booped me on the nose.