hip

hip — noun

1. the side of your body between your waist and the top of your legs, including the

1.nounA2
Definition

the side of your body between your waist and the top of your legs, including the large ball-and-socket joint where your leg connects to your pelvis

Example

Dahlia fell while ice-skating and felt a sharp pain in her left hip.

collocation: pain in the hip

The doctor examined Meera's hip and said the joint looked healthy.

Common collocations
  • wide hips
  • narrow hips
  • hip pain
  • hip replacement
  • hip joint
  • on your hip
  • broken hip
Synonyms
  • pelvis

    the technical term for the ring of bone at the base of the spine, which includes the hip joints

  • thigh

    the upper part of the leg below the hip, not the hip itself

Grammar Patterns

have + [adjective] + hips

pain/ache + in + the/your + hip

on + possessive + hip

Usage Note

Frequently used in the plural (hips) when referring to the width or shape of the body on both sides.

Common Mistakes

She put her hands on her waist.' (when meaning the sides).
She put her hands on her hips.
the waist is the narrow middle area around the navel; the hips are the wider side areas below the waist.

2. the small red or orange fruit produced by a wild rose bush after its flowers hav

2.nounB1
Definition

the small red or orange fruit produced by a wild rose bush after its flowers have dropped off, often used in teas and herbal remedies

Example

Zuri collected rose hips from the garden to make a warm winter tea.

collocation: collect rose hips

The rose hips turned bright red after the first cold night of autumn.

Common collocations
  • rose hip tea
  • dried rose hips
  • rose hip syrup
  • wild rose hips
Synonyms
  • rosehip

    alternative one-word spelling, equally correct

Grammar Patterns

collect/gather + rose hips

dried + rose hips

Usage Note

Rose hip is the standard term; the shortened form hip (without rose) is rare outside botanical writing.

Idioms

shoot from the hip

idiom

To act or speak quickly without careful thought.

Maya tends to shoot from the hip during meetings.

Did Diego shoot from the hip when he answered the question?

hip — adjective

hip — exclamation

hip — verb

Word family

  • hipness
    nounC2
  • hipped
    adjectiveC1
  • hipster
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe someone or something that follows current fashion, but they differ in tone and usage. Hip was very popular in the 1990s–2010s to describe cutting-edge youth culture; today it often sounds slightly dated or nostalgic. Trendy is common in British English and can carry a mild negative hint of following fashion without real taste. Cool is much broader and more enduring — it describes anything admirable or socially confident, not just fashion. Stylish focuses on elegant and attractive appearance rather than novelty. In current everyday speech, cool is the safest choice; hip works best when you want to refer specifically to subculture-aware trendiness.

trendy ↗cool ↗stylish ↗hip ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • hip bone
  • hip joint
  • hip pain
  • hip replacement
  • hip pocket
  • hip flask

Adverbs

  • very hip
  • quite hip

Phrases

Prepositions

  • to (verb sense: hip someone to something)

Etymology

GermanicOld EnglishEnglish

The body-part meaning comes from Old English hype, related to Dutch heup and German Hüfte, all from a Germanic root meaning 'to bend'. The rose-hip meaning comes from a different Old English word, hēope or hēopa, referring to the fruit of the wild rose — the two words were unrelated in origin but gradually came to be spelled the same way. The adjective meaning 'fashionable, aware' started in African American slang in the early 1900s and became mainstream in the counterculture movements of the 1950s-60s. The verb meaning 'to inform' developed from this same slang tradition, as 'being hip' meant being in the know.