blip

Noun
Synonyms: pipradar target

WordNet 3.0

Noun (2)

  1. a sudden minor shock or meaningless interruption“the market had one bad blip today”“you can't react to the day-to-day blips”“renewed jitters in the wake of a blip in retail sales”
  2. a radar echo displayed so as to show the position of a reflecting surfaceSynonyms: pipradar target
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

blip \blip\ n.

1.(Radar) a spot of light on a radar screen, showing the position of a reflecting surface, such as an airplane or ship.

Note: this sense is also used metaphorically to mean a barely perceptible object;, Kennedy's candidacy was a mere blip on Humphrey's radar screen until he won the West Virginia primary. This is the probably origin of sense 3.

Syn: radar echo, radar target. [WordNet 1.5]

2.a short upward or downward deviation from a trend line on a graph, especially in a plot of some variable, such as an economic variable, against time; as, a brief blip upward in the unemployment rate. [PJC]

3.something small or insignificant. [PJC]

4.a brief interruption in the continuity of a recorded or transmitted signal; as, there is a blip on my CD of Beethoven's ninth. [PJC]

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