[f. SNIP v.]
1. pl. A machine or instrument for snipping or clipping; scissors.
1593. J. Norden, Spec. Brit. (Camden), Pref. p. xiv. They have snippers wherewith they snyppe and pare their plates, which snippers … are so artificially placed,… that by the mocion of the water also the snippers open and shut.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. ii. (1632), 192. When in Josephus we heare a childe all to rent with bitting snippers.
1647. Hexham, I. A paire of snippers, een snip-schaerken.
2. One who snips or clips; spec. a tailor.
1611. Cotgr., Tondeur, a sheerer,… barber, vermine-snipper.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Knipper,… a Snipper. Ibid., Een snipperaer, a Snipper or a Cutter off.
1684. Dryden, trans. Maimbourg’s Hist. League, Postscr. 35. As our Snippers go over once a year into France, to bring back the newest Mode, and to learn to cut and shape it.
1827. Lancet, 10 Nov., 223/2. For the snippers of broad cloth and calf-skin I had little compassion.
1865. S. Evans, Brother Fabian’s MS., 156. You’d be delighted to murder the snipper Who measures my waist for a skirt.
3. A cattle-dealer on a small scale.
1869. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Sept., 12/1. The snippers and provincial jobbers of course furnish the raw material to the Aberdeen dealers and butchers.
