▪ I. quip, n.
(kwɪp)
Also 6 quyppe, 6–7 quipp(e.
[var. of quippy (q.v.), perh. associated with words of similar ending (as clip, nip, snip, whip) which contain the idea of something sharp or cutting.]
1. A sharp or sarcastic remark directed against a person; a clever gird or hit. In later use also without implication of sharpness: A clever, smart, or witty saying; a verbal conceit. Freq. in phr. quips and cranks (after quot. 1632).
In common use down to c 1650, after which literary examples are rare till after 1800.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 709/2 With this goodly quyppe agaynste me. 1584 Lyly Alex. & Camp. iii. ii, What's a quip? Man. Wee great girders call it a short saying of a sharpe wit, with a bitter sense in a sweet word. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 27 Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 351 This by a military jest, and facetious quip, they called the Commonwealth. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 472 Direct me to a quip Or merry turn in all he [Paul] ever wrote. 1843 Lever J. Hinton xliv, The whole conversation is..a hailstorm of short stories, quips, and retorts. 1855 A. Manning O. Chelsea Bun-ho. xvi. 274 She..gave him back quip for crank. |
b. A verbal equivocation; a quibble.
| c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon ix. 225 These Schollers know..How to vse quips and sleights of Sophistrie. 1812 Knox & Jebb Corr. II. 95 The practical goodness may be readily overlooked, whilst theological quips and quiddities may be fastened on. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke xxxvii, I will not..entrap you by quips and special pleading. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 73 Tricks of controversy and quips of law. |
2. a. A curious, odd, or fantastic action or feature.
| 1820 Shelley Witch Atlas li, Many quips and cranks She played upon the water. a 1864 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) I. 136 His manner was full of quirks and quips. 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. ix. 75 All the quips and turns and oddities of human nature. |
b. An odd and whimsical trifle; a knick-knack.
| 1820 Shelley Let. to Maria Gisborne 55 Upon the table More knacks and quips there be than I am able To cataloguize. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 216 The quips and quiddities of these degenerate days, little bits of riband, and pasteboard, and gilt paper. |
Hence ˈquipful, ˈquippish (also -ly, -ness), ˈquippy, ˈquipsome adjs., given to or characterized by quips; so ˈquipsomeness; ˈquipster, one given to quips.
| a 1834 S. T. Coleridge in N. & Q. (1888) 7th Ser. VI. 501/2, I prefer Fuller's [version] as more quippish and adagy. 1859 W. Chadwick Life De Foe vii. 372 As a writer, he was a quippy slack-wire performer. 1876 J. Weiss Wit, Hum. & Shaks. vi. 198 There never was such a jaunty and irrepressible quipster. 1881 Sat. Rev. 23 Apr. 528 His very style is young, and not without a certain quipsomeness. 1884 C. M. Yonge in Eng. Illustr. Mag. I. 462 Is it only that the lad is thy very marrow, quipsome one? 1909 A. Bennett Literary Taste vi. 31 Charles Lamb's essay on Dream Children..enlivened by a certain quippishness concerning the children. 1962 Punch 15 Aug. 224/2 The one who provides the old Russian sayings is his nearest equivalent to [Bob] Hope's tarmac quipster. 1976 New Scientist 22 July 190/3 Another speaker quippishly suggested that we should treat them [sc. ‘core’ journals] like apples. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 14 Aug. 16/2 He doesn't mind being called Gooey Lombardo or Guy Lumbago; he smiles when quipsters dub him the Pied Piper of the geriatric set. 1977 Time 6 June 39/2 A quipster with no audience for his one-liners? |
▪ II. quip, v.
(kwɪp)
[f. prec. n.]
1. a. trans. To assail with a quip or quips.
| 1584 Lyly Alex. & Camp. iii. ii, Didst thou not finde I did quip thee? 1625 W. B. True School War 56 Hee spake these expresse words to some that quipped him for this. a 1670 Hacket Cent. Serm. (1675) 791 The Heathen quipt them that they had no Images nor Altars. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1859) I. 286 If any one quipped the profession of another. |
b. With speech as direct object: to say or reply as a quip.
| 1950 New Yorker 25 Mar. 26/3 ‘Looks like somebody lost their head!’ quipped Detective Garnet P. Quail. 1965 D. Lodge Brit. Mus. is falling Down viii. 132 ‘Someone taking my name in vain?’.. ‘In bane,’ Adam quipped, and laughed immoderately. 1974 Times 11 Oct. 10/1 ‘I became a tremendous bargain. I went from a million to nothing,’ she quipped to reporters. 1978 Woman's Own 16 Sept. 12/1 My daughter was rather amused and quipped: ‘Most parents have problem teenagers but we have a problem mother.’ |
2. intr. To use a quip or quips; to be wittily sarcastic. Const. at, with.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 206 Ye malitious haue more minde to quip, then might to cut. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. ix. (1897) III. 129 Tacitus doth pleasantly quip and jest at the men of war of our ancient Gaules. 1633 Prynne 1st Pt. Histrio-m. viii. vi. 796 If you will learne..to deride, quippe, scorne,..you neede not goe to any other schooles. 1908 Smart Set June 50 Audrey in her blithesome way Would quip and jest with roguish glee. 1942 Z. N. Hurston Dust Tracks on Road xii. 225 The educated Negro..is fighting entirely out of his class when he tries to quip with the underprivileged. |
Hence ˈquipper, one who quips.
| 1589 Nashe Introd. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 14 Here, peraduenture, some desperate quipper will canuaze my proposed comparison. a 1603 in Nichols Progr. III. 143 What meane you, a starmonger, the quipper of the firmament. 1611 Cotgr., Lardonneur, a quipper, girder, flowter. 1951 O. Nash Family Reunion 36 She'll nogg his eggs and she'll toast his kippers, And disparage the quips of the current quippers. 1960 Guardian 19 Nov. 3/6 His intervention has at least provided the quippers with a not very good quip. |
▪ III. quip(pe
obs. forms of whip.