[f. CLIP v.2]
1. pl. Shears (esp. for wool).
1681. Inv., in Biggar & House of Fleming (1862), 63. Ane pair of clipes 20/.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), II. 181. A pair of clips, a graip, a flail.
1782. Burns, Poor Mailie’s Elegy, vi. A bonnier fleesh ne’er cross’d the clips.
2. That which is clipped or cut: a clipping.
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, A short piece cut off; e. g. a pattern of cloth or calico.
b. spec. The whole quantity of wool shorn in any place, or in one season.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v., ‘Farmer A. had but a very moderate clip this year.’
1842. Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 94. The clip of 1827 is large.
1867. Times, 18 Nov., 7/2. Every prospect of an abundant clip.
3. An act of clipping or shearing.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Clip, the act of shearing.
1885. Birmghm. Daily Post, 5 Jan., 6/6. Higher prices must naturally be expected between now and the next clip.
Mod. colloq. I’ve just been having a clip at the barber’s.
4. A smart blow, stroke, or ‘cut.’
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. The master fires … and hits the cat a clip on the neck.
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 89. He made a pull at the old fashioned sword…, and drawin it out he made a clip at him as wicked as if he was stabbin a rat with a hay-fork.
1847–78. Halliwell, Clip, a blow or stroke.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Clip. A blow or stroke with the hand; as, ‘He hit him a clip.’—Webster.
5. attrib. and Comb., as clip-mark sb.; clip-marked, -winged adjs.; clip-collector, one who collects for customers newspaper cuttings upon any special subject; clip-house, a clipping-house (q.v.); clip-shears (Sc. dial.), an earwig.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 May, 4/1. Messrs. Curteis, the *clip collectors.
1567. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), 45 (Jam.). That *clip-houssis [ed. 1597, § 19 clipping-houses] be maid within evyry burcht quhair neid requiris.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4236/8. A *clip Mark N. A. on each side her Rump. Ibid. (1683), No. 1859/8. A brown Gelding … *Clip-marked with I. D. upon both his Buttocks.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 152. A *clip-wing’d Griffin, and a moulten Rauen.
