# How do you spell...uh..."kipe"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 21, 2007, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817 "2007-12-21T09:07:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Catfood\_Purrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catfood_Purrito)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/21 "2007-12-21T18:21:35Z")
It was “kife” where I grew up, and I’ve never heard “kipe,” “kike,” or “jew” used in that way. I grew up in Iowa.
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### Author:  [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/22 "2007-12-21T18:23:49Z")
The usage I’m familiar with for “kipe” is for those moments when someone takes something that they know if they were to ask, they’d get permission to take it anyways. For example: “I kiped a Coke from the fridge.”
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/23 "2007-12-21T18:42:24Z")
I’ve heard the word “jew” used as a verb, but like robardin, it meant excessive haggling rather than outright fraud or theft. It would be something like negotiating over the price of a used car and then after that deal was settled having the seller then ask for twenty more dollars for the gas in the tank.
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/24 "2007-12-21T19:00:51Z")
I grew up in suburban Philly and didn’t hear kipe until moving to south central PA. Its usage is consistent with the definition expressed by **Aangelica**.
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/25 "2007-12-21T20:30:42Z")
Data point: “kipe” is completely unknown in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Has "kipe"ever even been used in a movie or something? Seems to have a wide geographic coverage … odd that folks from all over the U.S. haven’t run into it in media, at the very least.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/26 "2007-12-21T20:43:51Z")
I’ve never heard “kipe.” Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon.
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### Author:  [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/27 "2007-12-21T21:14:08Z")
[QUOTE=Aangelica]
The usage I’m familiar with for “kipe” is for those moments when someone takes something that they know if they were to ask, they’d get permission to take it anyways. For example: “I kiped a Coke from the fridge.”
[/QUOTE]
Basically the same here. I always figured it was a a mixture of “cop” and “swipe”, like **Aangelica** used it, or very petty theft. Like you might kipe a pencil off the teacher’s desk. And that’s something the teacher may well have given you anyway, like the Coke from the fridge, but taking it without asking was the “kipe”.
Texas, small town.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/28 "2007-12-21T22:19:17Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott]
“Ama drive ta Kipe Canivverrl Satdy. Wanna go?” 😉
[/QUOTE]
Cain’t. Ah gotsta werk.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/29 "2007-12-21T22:31:13Z")
I’ve definitely heard this expression. However, we spell it “kiwainscotingpe” (the “wainscoting” is silent).
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/30 "2007-12-21T22:42:10Z")
People here say kype, but I’ve never heard kike used like that (or much at all, in fact). The last time I heard “jew” used as a verb for haggling or cheating, it was several years ago–a local city counselor said it in a joshing manner and then nearly lost his posistion in the ensuing scandal.
Anyway kipe or kype is when you nick something small. You might say “Yoink!” while you’re doing it.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/31 "2007-12-21T23:11:26Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
Doesn’t “cop” work, too?
[/QUOTE]
Especially if followed by “a feel.”
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### Author:  [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/32 "2007-12-22T00:00:05Z")
I heard (and assumed it was spelled) “kype” as a kid and teenager. Haven’t heard it now for probably 20 years that I can remember. It was used just like “swipe”, but usually applied to something small.
Never heard “kike” used to mean steal, actually I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard “kike” used in any sense in actual conversation. I’ve heard it in movies and TV, seen it in books, etc., but always as a noun, a derogatory name for a Jewish person.
And I’ve heard “jew” in conversation, as a verb it always applied to haggling over a price. “Jewed him down” or “I was jewed down” were fairly common when I was a kid. Like “kype” I don’t think I’ve heard it used that way in a long time.
Childhood for me was late 1950s and 1960s Utah.
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### Author:  [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/33 "2007-12-22T01:07:50Z")
[QUOTE=Mishell]
It was “kife” where I grew up, and I’ve never heard “kipe,” “kike,” or “jew” used in that way. I grew up in Iowa.
[/QUOTE]
Ditto, except that whole Iowa thing.
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### Author:  [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/34 "2007-12-23T17:15:46Z")
[QUOTE=bordelond]
Data point: “kipe” is completely unknown in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Has "kipe"ever even been used in a movie or something? Seems to have a wide geographic coverage … odd that folks from all over the U.S. haven’t run into it in media, at the very least.
[/QUOTE]
Johnny Carson used _kiped_ in a famous alliterative bit with Jack Webb (the Copper Clapper Caper; “So Claude Cooper kiped your copper clapper, kept in a closet?” etc.).
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/35 "2007-12-23T17:42:56Z")
Another California here, Central. From birth (1945) till I moved north kipe was in very common use. Still here it used sometimes up here in the SF Bay Area.
It’s definitely a friendlier version of “steal”. My friends and I used to kipe fresh, still warm tortillas off the stack while their moms were making them. The price was a swat, but there always seemed to be softened butter handy. 🙂
Warm buttered tortillas sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and rolled up. You gotta fold the bottom end up to keep the yummies in.
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/36 "2007-12-23T18:20:08Z")
Born and raised midwest…
Kike - derogatory term for Jews
Kife - to steal a small object but not used a lot in my circles. I’m thinking I may have read the term in a book as a kid. Seems more likely used on the east coast.
Jew - verb meaning a negotiated price with a positive result to the speaker. “He was asking $500 but I jewed him down to $450”.
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