▪ I. fipple, n.
(ˈfɪp(ə)l)
Also Sc. faiple.
[Cf. Icel. flipi lip of a horse.]
1. The plug at the mouth of a wind-instrument, by which its volume was contracted. Also attrib., as fipple flute (see quot. 1956).
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §161 Let there be a Recorder made with two Fipples, at each end one. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 966/2 (heading) Recorder, Fipple Flute or English Flute. Ibid., This channel is so constructed within the mouthpiece that the stream of air impinges with force against the sharp edge of a lip or fipple. 1956 Oxf. Compan. Music (ed. 9) 865/1 Flutes of the end-blown variety are..known as fipple flutes. |
2. north. dial. ‘The underlip in men and animals, when it hangs down large and loose’ (Jam.). to hang a (the, one's) fipple: to look disappointed, discontented, or sulky; also, to weep.
| 1805 A. Scott Poems 23 (Jam.) Condemned to hang a faiple. 1825 Brockett N. Country Gloss., ‘See how he hangs his fipple.’ 1892 Northumb. Gloss. s.v. ‘What a fipple!’—what a face you're making. |
3. dial. (See quot.)
| 1892 Northumb. Gloss., After stooks of corn remain standing for a time, the bottoms of the sheaves become naturally longer on the outside than the inside, which is called their ‘fipple’. |
▪ II. † ˈfipple, v. Sc. Obs.
Also 6 fepple.
[Cf. Sw. flipa to weep with distortion of the mouth.]
intr. ? To whimper, whine; ? to slaver, dribble.
| 14.. Peebles to Play xxv, He fippilit like ane faderles fole. 1508 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 114 He feppillis like a farcy aver, that flyrit on a gillot. |