Kip (unit)

A kip is an Imperial unit of force. It equals 1000 pounds-force, used primarily by American architects and engineers to measure engineering loads. Although uncommon, it is occasionally also considered a unit of weight, equal to 1000 pounds, i.e., one half of a short ton. One use is as a unit of deadweight to compute shipping charges.

The name comes from combining the words "kilo" and "pound"; it is occasionally called a kilopound. Its symbol is kip, or less frequently, klb. When it is necessary to clearly distinguish it as a unit of force rather than mass, it is sometimes called the kip-force (symbol kipf or klbf). Note that the symbol kp usually stands for a different unit of force, the kilopond or kilogram-force used primarily in Europe prior to the introduction of SI units.

The kip is also the name of obsolete units of measure in Malaysia.