Forms: α. 6 fillippe, -op(pe, fyl(l)ippe, -yp(pe, -op, 6–9 filip, (6 -op), (8 fillup), 6– fillip. β. 6–7 phillip, (6 phil(l)ippe, phylyp, 7 philip, -lop). [app. onomatopœic; cf. FLIP, FLIRT, used in similar sense. The sb. and vb. appear nearly contemporaneously in 16th c.; it is uncertain which is the source of the other.]
1. A movement made by bending the last joint of a finger against the thumb and suddenly releasing it (so as to propel some small object, or merely as a gesture); a smart stroke or tap given by this means.
1530. Palsgr., 220/1. Fyllippe with ones fyngar, chicquenode.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., 20. Their Bookes be Glasse, giue them but a filip, they run to powder.
1594. Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, III. 44. Seueral gestures, countenances, or actions, as an hem for a B. as a crosse made on the forehead for a C. a phillip for D. and so of the rest.
1619. Rich, Irish Hubbub (1623), 24. Hee … gives the cup a phillip to make it cry Twango.
1721–1800. Bailey, Fillip, a throw of a Piece of Money with one’s Finger or Nail.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 10 April, an. 1772. The Prince took up a glass of wine, and, by a fillip, made some of it fly in Oglethorpe’s face.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), IV. xxxvi. 234. He [Tiberius] could drive, it is said, his extended finger through a sound apple, and blood from a slave’s head with a fillip.
b. Something of small importance; a trifle. Also, a short space of time, a moment.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., V. xvii. 386. Eat, drinke, and be merrie. The rest is not worth a fillip with the fingar.
1633. D. R[ogers], Treat. Sacraments, I. 171. If the Lord then crosse thee so, not in some petty filip of a finger, but in a tedious sort, even in what is most precious; consider the Lord hath done it: that he might make thee partaker of his holinesse.
1821. Byron, Sardanapalus, I. ii. Eat, drink, and love; the rest ’s not worth a fillip.
1880. Griffis, Japanese Fairy World, xvii. (1887), 150. The tortoise trotted off to the sea, swam to the spot over the Queen’s palace, and in a fillip of the finger was down in the gardens of Riu Gu.
2. In a wider sense: A smart blow (with the fist, etc.). Now rare.
1543. Becon, Invect. agst. Swearing, 28 a. Suche a fylyppe, as shal fylyppe them downe into the botome of hell fyre.
1575. J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, V. ii., in Hazl., Dodsley, III. 238.
| There was a knave not far, | |
| Who caught one good filip on the brow with a door-bar. |
1618. Fletcher, The Chances, III. iv.
| One, if foule play | |
| Should fall upon us (for which fear I brought him) | |
| Will not flie back for phillips. |
1772. trans. Galland’s Arab. Nts., IV. 151. One give poor Bakbarah a filip on the nose with all her strength.
fig. 1788. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 250. The Marquis de la Fayette, with several others, have lately received a fillip for having assembled to sign a memorial to the King.
3. Something that serves to rouse, excite, or animate; a stimulus.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Give Nature a Filip, to Debauch a little now and then with Women, or Wine.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, 80. I willingly allow, that fermented and sometimes spirituous Liquors, are excellent Remedies, temporary Filips, Whips or Spurs.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 238. This bon mot gave a fillip to my spirits.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 273. A remission of two-thirds the duty on flint glass, leaving only about twopence per pound, during the session of 1835, has given the trade a fillip.
1847. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), I. 144. Without the fillip of a little scandal, honest people would fall asleep; and surely it is far preferable to that to abuse one’s friends with moderation.
