▪ I. tripping, vbl. n.
(ˈtrɪpɪŋ)
[f. trip v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb trip in transitive senses.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Traspie, tripping, supplantatio. 1601 Breton (title) No Whippinge, nor Trippinge: but a kinde friendly Snippinge. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) I. 163 The mysteries of bruising, of wrestling, and of tripping. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xii. 26 Martin's patent anchor..easy tripping and fishing, great lightness. 1880 Times 12 Nov. 4/4 It was only lately that Rugby school abandoned the ‘hacking’ and ‘tripping’ which made football dreaded by anxious mothers. |
b. spec. in Bot.: see sense 15 of the vb.
| 1909 Bull. Bureau Plant Industry, U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 24. 8 If fertile seed is to be produced in any quantity it is necessary that a certain explosive mechanism within the flower be released. The release of this mechanism, whether it be accomplished by insects or otherwise, is popularly called ‘tripping’. 1930 Jrnl. Amer. Soc. Agronomy XXII. 782 When the flowers were left exposed and not tripped artificially the gain was 1:1·7 in favor of artificial tripping. 1978 Nature 7 Sept. 54/2 In artificial field bean pollination, manual tripping of open flowers is a recommended practice for increasing seed set in auto⁓sterile lines. |
2. The action of the verb trip in transitive senses. Also tripping up; in quot. 1857 spec. the curvature of a boat's keel.
| 1594 Nashe Terrors Night Wks. (Grosart) III. 273 Their daintie feete in their tender birdlike trippings, enameld (as it were) the dustie ground. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1072 Answeres and oracles as touching..the tripping and stumbling of the foot. 1693 Apol. Clergy Scot. 14 [They] are very glad when they can discover the trippings of their Adversaries. 1733 S. Knight in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. (1790) III. 167 It is very easy to discover his trippings. 1828 Carlyle Misc., Goethe's Helena (1857) I. 145 Fine warblings and trippings on the light fantastic toe. 1840 Hood Up Rhine 36 Tripping up the Rhine, instead of taking my place at Woodlands. 1850 Denison Clock & Watch-m. 77 The hook at the end of the slope will not catch the tooth as it ought to do, and two or three teeth will slip past at once: this is called tripping. 1857 Colquhoun Comp. Oarsman's Guide 31 Shear is the rising of the gunwale of a boat towards head and stern; gamber is the same on the keel; otherwise called tripping up. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 371/1 This error called ‘tripping’, is also produced if there is much space between the detent and the wheel. 1894 Forum (N.Y.) Oct. 158 Slips, hesitations, and tripping in speech, which, once made, could never be recalled. |
b. spec. of drug-induced hallucinations: see 5 b of the vb.
| 1968 L. W. Robinson Assassin xii. 128 Their passion was a long one..as though they hated to come back..from the rocking, tossing, sweet trip... But no, the sweet tripping was not over. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly vi. 59 The girls weren't wearing brassieres... The skinnier ones just looked flat. Tripping didn't solve everything. 1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Oct. 1203/4 When Christiane F. was thirteen years old, she began to frequent a youth club run by the Protestant Church in an overcrowded district of West Berlin. There she started smoking hashish, taking ‘uppers and downers’ and ‘tripping’ on LSD. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as tripping-block; tripping-line (Naut.), a light line for tilting the yards (see trip v. 12); also, a line for manipulating a drogue; tripping string, a line set by burglars to trip possible pursuers.
| 1620 Shelton Quix. ii. iv. 26 What doe I know, whether..the Deuill hath set any tripping-blocke before me, where I may stumble and fall? 1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Man., Tripping line, a line used for tripping a topgallant or royal yard in sending it down. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 260 Drogues..are towed..mouth foremost by a stout rope, a small line termed a tripping-line, being fastened to the apex. 1891 Daily News 31 Dec. 4/7 The doors..having first been securely fastened..and tripping strings having been stretched across the pathways and lawn. |
▪ II. ˈtripping, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That trips, in various senses.
1. Moving quickly and lightly; light-footed; nimble. Also fig.
| 1567 Drant Horace, Epist. xiv. E v, Thou hast no trippinge trull to mince it with the now That thou mighst foote it vnto her. 1568 Satir. Poems Reform. xlvi. 56 Thir tripand tyddis may tyne ws aw. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. Introd. Verses 185 When little Tripping Maidens follow God, And leave old doting Sinners to his Rod. 1708 Prior Turtle & Sparrow 37 The tripping Fauns and Fairies came. 1807 Scott Let. to Southey 1 Oct. in Lockhart Life, A tripping Alexandrine stanza. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles i. 2 A quick, tripping footstep sounds in the deserted street. 1880 Ld. Acton Lett. to Gladstone (1904) 6 You will find his conversation, easy and tripping as it is, very inferior to his writings. |
2. Stumbling, erring, sinning.
| 1557 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 296 The Lord beginneth..with the bridle to checke the mouth of his tripping Church. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Chevaux qui brunchent, stumbling or tripping Iades. 1646 Gataker Mistake Removed 31 The tripping toung sometimes tels truth. 1703 Rowe Fair Penit. Epil., The tripping Dame cou'd find no Favour. 1903 G. Matheson Repr. Men Bible Ser. ii. 287 Where the tripping are trodden down, where the weak are weeded out by the strong. |
3. Her. Of a buck, stag, etc.: Walking, and looking toward the dexter side, with three paws on the ground and one fore-paw raised; the same as passant of other animals. tripping-counter = counter-trippant.
| 1562 Leigh Armorie 90 b, An Vnicorne trippyng, Sable. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiv. (1611) 131 He beareth Azure, three Buckes tripping. c 1828 Berry Encycl. Her. I. Gloss., Tripping-counter, or counter-trippant, is when two bucks, &c. are borne trippant contraryways, as if passing each other out of the field. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. x. 62 Stags,..when in easy motion, they are tripping. 1870 Rock Text. Fabr. i. 40 Two giraffes, with one leg raised—may be better described as tripping. |
4. In names of mechanical appliances that trip or are tripped (cf. trip v. 14); as tripping-coil, tripping-lever, tripping-relay (Cent. Dict., Suppl. 1909); tripping-valve: see quot.
| 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Tripping-valve, one moved recurrently by the contact of some other part of the machinery. |
Hence ˈtrippingness.
| 1827 Examiner 738/1 Too much of trippingness in the walk. 1890 Fanny Murfree Felicia xi, The basso could not forgive the soprano for the trippingness of her execution. |