Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cut, cut off, or cut out with or as if with shears.
  • intransitive verb To make shorter by cutting; trim.
  • intransitive verb To cut off the edge of.
  • intransitive verb To cut short; curtail.
  • intransitive verb To shorten (a word or words) by leaving out letters or syllables.
  • intransitive verb To enunciate with clarity and precision.
  • intransitive verb Informal To hit with a sharp blow.
  • intransitive verb Football To block (an opponent) illegally from the rear.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit or kick (the ball) in a certain direction.
  • intransitive verb Slang To cheat, swindle, or rob.
  • intransitive verb To cut something.
  • intransitive verb Informal To move rapidly.
  • noun The act of clipping.
  • noun Something clipped off, especially.
  • noun The wool shorn at one shearing, as of sheep.
  • noun A season's shearing.
  • noun A short extract from a movie or television program.
  • noun Informal A quick sharp blow.
  • noun Football An illegal block from the rear.
  • noun Informal A pace or rate.
  • noun A single occasion; a time.
  • noun A pair of shears or clippers.
  • noun Any of various devices for gripping or holding things together; a clasp or fastener.
  • noun A piece of jewelry that fastens with a clasp or clip; a brooch.
  • noun A cartridge clip.
  • transitive verb To fasten with or as if with a clip; hold tightly.
  • transitive verb Archaic To embrace or encompass.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To embrace; infold; hug; clasp; grasp; grip.
  • To hold together by pressure, as with a spring, screw, or bandage.
  • noun An embrace.
  • noun A grasp; clasp; grip, as of a machine.
  • noun A device for closing a vent in a machine.
  • noun In farriery, a projecting flange on the upper surface of a horseshoe, which partially embraces the wall of the hoof.
  • noun A metal clasp or confining piece used to connect the parts of a carriage-gear, or to hold the hook of a whipple-tree.
  • noun A clasp or spring-holder for letters, papers, etc.
  • To cut off or sever with a sharp instrument, as shears or scissors; trim or make shorter by cutting: as, to clip the hair; to clip a bird's wings.
  • To diminish by cutting or paring: as, to clip coin; “clipped silver,”
  • To shorten; curtail; cut short; impair by lessening.
  • Hence To pronounce (words) in a shortened form, or with abbreviation.
  • To cut hair.
  • noun The quantity of wool shorn at a single shearing of sheep; a season's shearing.
  • noun A blow or stroke with the hand.
  • noun plural Shears, especially sheep-shears.
  • To move swiftly, as a falcon, a horse, or a yacht: often with an indefinite it.
  • A dialectal form of clepe.
  • noun In angling, a salmon-gaff.
  • noun Same as cartridge-clip.
  • noun Rate of rapid motion, as of horses or yachts: as, a three-mile clip; a fifteen-knot clip.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To move swiftly; -- usually with indefinite it.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English clippen, from Old Norse klippa.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, hook, from clippen, to clasp, embrace, from Old English clyppan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English clyppan, from Proto-Germanic *klupjanan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably from Old Norse klippa.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Sever v. attach.

    December 3, 2007

  • In coinmaking, slang for a coin struck from a clipped planchet.

    April 21, 2008

  • All the wool from a sheared flock of sheep (Australia).

    February 18, 2010