▪ I. clipping, vbl. n.1
(ˈklɪpɪŋ)
[f. clip v. + -ing1.]
Clasping, embracing.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 3 Fleschliche þohtes..eggeð þe to brudlac & to weres cluppinge. 1382 Wyclif Eccl. iii. 5 Time of clipping and time to ben maad aferr fro clippingus. 1434 E.E. Wills (1882) 102 A ryng..with clippyng of ij handes, siluir & gilt. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Embrassement, a colling, a clipping. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 104 Kissing and clipping. 1862 Sir H. Taylor St. Clement's Eve v. ii, Is this a time for clippings and embracings? |
▪ II. clipping, vbl. n.2
[f. clip v.2]
1. The action of cutting with (or as with) shears or scissors.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 82 Clyppynge, tonsura. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 164 The Jewis..were also accused of clipping of money. 1560 1st Bk. Discipl. Ch. Scot. xvi. (1836) 82 The clipping of their crownes. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet B iij, Which made his eares quake for feare of clipping. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. ii. (1743) 160 The silver coin of this kingdom was miserably debased by clipping. 1839 Carlyle Chartism viii. 160 Successive clippings away of the Supreme Authority. 1885 Saunders in Academy 21 Nov. 337/2 Clipping [of horses]..was only introduced from the Continent about 1825. |
2. a. The product of this action, a small piece clipped off, a cutting, paring, shaving; a shred of cloth, a portion pared from a coin, etc.
| 1461–83 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 71 His parte of the clippinges and fees. 1579 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (1884) 61 The voutesafynge me by the next carrier..the clippings of your thrishonorable mustachyoes. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2496/4 Convicted of having Clippings and Clipping-Tools found in his House. 1866 Reader 28 July 684 His clippings from popular writers. 1884 [See clipper n.1 2]. 1885 Manch. Exam. 21 Oct. 5/6 The tin clippings are wastefully thrown into the river. |
b. A press cutting (cf. cutting vbl. n. 4 b). orig. U.S.
| 1857 N. W. T. Root School Amusements 207 Every day there are brought in the clippings, and cuttings of all the boys, from home papers. 1903 [see press n.1 17 b]. 1935 Punch 27 Mar. 338/1 So many diverse expressions of opinion, so many clippings from newspaper articles..have been sent to this office. |
c. The shortening of a word, etc.; also, the resulting shortened form.
| 1933 Partridge Slang To-day & Yesterday i. iii. 27 Slang delights to curtail (clip, abbreviate, shorten) words... Many such clippings have passed into standard English, as with cab for cabriolet, 'bus for omnibus. 1948 N. Gray in Papers Brit. Sch. Rome XVI. 87 The clipping of the enclitic que becomes common for the first time. 1965 English Studies XLVI. 474 ‘Tab’ as a clipping from tabloid. |
3. Comb. clipping agency or bureau U.S., an organization which supplies clippings from newspapers, etc.; a press-cutting agency; † clipping-house, (a) a barber's-shop; (b) a house in which false coin was destroyed by being clipped; clipping-shears (see quot.); clipping-time, (a) the time of sheep-shearing; (b) Sc., the nick of time.
| 1938 S. V. Benét Thirteen O'Clock 81 If I could get hold of her *clipping-agency, there'd be blood on the moon. |
| 1910 Sat. Even. Post 30 July 6/2 The latter has been posted on Antioch affairs by the girl who runs the *clipping bureau. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 67 A *Clippynge howse, tonsorium. 1567 Act 1 Jas. VI (1597) §19 Ordanes the Provest and Baillies.. to make sufficient clipping houses. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., *Clipping-shears, shears for clipping horses, having a guard which gages the length of hair. |
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1740 Laban ferde to nimen kep, In *clipping time to hise sep. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 2 From lambinge time..till clippinge time, which is aboute midsummer, they are called gimmer lambes. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxi, I wad likeit weel, just to hae come in at the clipping-time, and gi'en him a lounder wi' my pike-staff. |
| 1800 Wordsw. Michael 174 That large old oak..Chosen for the shearer's covert from the sun, Thence..call'd The *‘Clipping Tree’. |
Add: [1.] b. Computing. The action of or facility for removing parts of a displayed image.
| 1968 AFIPS Conf. Proc. XXXIII. 766/1 Windowing may..be performed by clipping, the process of discovering which portions of a drawing are within the window and computing appropriate scope coordinates for them. 1975 Software Practice & Experience V. 115 The windowing problem can be..thought of as two processes: scaling and clipping. 1983 Austral. Microcomputer Mag. Dec. 104/1 To push back the limits of the world of microcomputer graphics means the programmer has to learn about clipping and viewports. 1986 Computerworld 7 Apr. 81/2 Reverse clipping with ZMD-Plot allows the user to blank out certain portions of the graphic image and overlay a second image. |
▪ III. clipping, ppl. a.1
(ˈklɪpɪŋ)
[f. clip v.1 + -ing2.]
Clasping, embracing.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 92 He..runnes, and takes her in his clipping armes. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. Proem. 171 Let others sing..of clipping loues. |
▪ IV. clipping, ppl. a.2
(ˈklɪpɪŋ)
[f. clip v.2]
a. That clips, or cuts with shears; that flies or moves fast.
| 1635 Quarles Embl. iv. ii. (1718) 194 The pinions of a clipping dove. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. ix, I only wish I had the command of a clipping privateer. 1876 Blackie Songs Relig. & Life 151 With clipping tongue. |
b. Of pace: fast, ‘rattling’. colloq.
| 1845 Punch Sept. 122/1 When we do walk in our slumbers, we walk a clipping pace. 1896 B'ham Daily Gaz. 2 Sept. (E.D.D.), [The fox] ran at a clipping pace. |
c. slang. Excellent, first-rate.
| 1848 A. H. Clough Bothie 22 At Castleton, high in Braemar, were the clippingest places for bathing. 1861 Thackeray Philip iv, What clipping girls there were in that barouche. 1873 Slang Dict., Clipping, excellent, very good. |
Hence ˈclippingly adv., in a clipping manner.
| 1849 Lytton Arthur vi. xxxiii, It was sublime to see Such polished sheers go clippingly. 1857 S. Osborn Quedah iii. 38 His cognomen..was Jack Ketch; a nickname he pronounced so clippingly that it sounded not unlike his real one. |