Bleeped – Definition & Meaning

In today’s media-dominated world, we are often exposed to content that may not be suitable for all audiences. In order to avoid offending or disturbing viewers, certain words or phrases are often censored or bleeped out. But what exactly does it mean when something is “bleeped”? In this article, we will explore the definition and meaning of this term.

Definitions

To bleep something means to replace a word or phrase with a beep sound or other audio signal, usually to obscure profanity or other offensive language. This can be done in live broadcasts as well as pre-recorded content.

Origin

The term “bleep” is believed to have originated in the early days of radio and television, when engineers would use a tone generator to create a beep sound to indicate that a word or phrase had been censored. Over time, the term “bleep” came to refer to the sound itself, as well as the act of censoring.

Meaning in different dictionaries

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to bleep means “to replace (a word or phrase) with a beep sound in a recording or broadcast.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “to replace a word or words in a broadcast with a series of bleeps, usually to prevent the broadcast from being offensive or inappropriate.”

Associations

The act of bleeping is often associated with censorship, as it is used to obscure language that may be considered offensive or inappropriate. It is also associated with live television or radio broadcasts, where there is a risk of unscripted language being used.

Synonyms

Some synonyms for bleeped include censored, muted, silenced, and edited.

Antonyms

Antonyms for bleeped could include uncensored, unedited, or unfiltered.

The same root words

The word “bleep” is believed to have originated as an onomatopoeic representation of the sound itself. It is not related to any other English words.

Example Sentences

1. The profanity was bleeped out of the live broadcast.
2. The movie had to be bleeped several times to avoid an R rating.
3. The comedian’s jokes were so raunchy that they had to be heavily bleeped for television.
4. The radio station received complaints after accidentally airing an unbleeped version of the song.
5. The editor had to carefully bleep out any offensive language in the interview before it could be published.