blep

English

a horse blepping

Etymology

Imitative.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɛp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

blep (third-person singular simple present bleps, present participle blepping, simple past and past participle blepped)

1. (Internet slang, of an animal) To extend the tongue beyond the lips, seemingly for no reason, without opening the mouth fully.
   • 2018 March 17, Ellen Scott, “Why cats leave their tongues hanging out”, in The Metro‎^[1]:

     You know what blepping is, right? It’s when an animal’s tongue casually pokes out of their mouth and stays there. It’s very cute, but quite odd.

   • 2018 May 24, Michele Debczak, “Sploot 101: 12 Animal Slang Words Every Pet Parent Should Know”, in Mental Floss‎^[2]:

     Animal experts aren’t entirely sure why pets blep, but in cats it may have something to do with the Flehmen response, in which they use their tongues to “smell” the air.

   • 2019 October 12, Andrew Fortin-Caldera, “LA Zoo Urges Support for Endangered Species with Cute Animal Pics”, in NBC Los Angeles‎^[3]:

     The Endangered Species Act is our greatest safeguard against extinction, and it's under attack right now. Animals can’t speak up to protect their own kind, but they can blep.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:blep.

Noun

blep (plural bleps)

1. (Internet slang, of an animal) The act of extending the tongue beyond the lips without opening the mouth fully.
   • 2015, "Digital Mews", The Cat Magazine, Winter 2015, page 9:

     We found out why cats do this and collated some of our favorite blep moments.

   • 2016, Jeremy Moule, "Reddit co-founder: You've got to suck to succeed," CITY Newspaper, 19 October 2016 - 25 October 2016, page 5:

     The social media site is a sprawling series of discussion boards, ranging from deep debates on sociological theory to pictures of cats with their tongues half out (a “blep”).

   • 2019 December, Stephanie Wilson, “Woo-Woo Woofers”, in Sensi Magazine, page 37:

     Millennials' love for their pups is so intense, it's spawned its own language. Us hoomans chase our heckin floofers, iPhones in hand, snapping pics of their snoots and bleps to share with frens, posting with captions about the goodest boy in the world.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:blep.

Related terms

• mlem

Anagrams

• BPEL, Belp, pelB, pleb