whipcord, n.
(ˈhwɪpkɔːd)
[? f. whip v. III, with later association of whip n. I + cord n.1]
1. a. A thin tough kind of hempen cord, of which whip-lashes or the ends of them are made; in allusive use, the material of whip-lashes.
Perh. orig. Fine cord or twine for ‘whipping’ or binding closely round something.
| 1318–19 in G. Oliver Lives Bps. Exeter etc. (1861) 381 Wyppe-cord, 3d. 1362–3 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 565 In xij peciis de Qwypcord empt. pro carectar. iiij d. 1465 Marg. Paston in P. Lett. II. 215 Thei..bownde his armes be hynde hym with whippe cord like a theffe. 1487–8 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 131 For lyne and whippcorde to serve the same clothe, ij d. 1541 in Essex Rev. XXI. 145 Payd for whipcorde for the pascall, ii d. c 1616 Fletcher Thierry & Theod. v. i, Beg, beg, and keep Constables waking, wear out stocks and whipcord. 1675 Three Inhumane Murthers 6 The Judge Caus'd his Thumbs to be ty'd fast together with whipcord. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xix, He will neither spare whipcord nor spur-rowel. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxxii, He looks as hard as iron, and tough as whipcord. |
b. A piece of this material, as a whip-lash or its extremity.
| ? a 1500 Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) xvi. 430 Takes him here bounden fast, While a whipcord here will last. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 17 As far as the whipcord would stretch. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 11 Apr. 1645, Dashing the knotted and ravelled whipcord over their shoulders. 1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 63 One may break a whip-cord..with one's hand..by bringing one part of the rope to cut the other. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. vi. 58 Our eight-inch hawser parted like a whip-cord. |
c. attrib. Tough as whipcord.
| 1879 Browning Halbert & Hob 27 One whipcord nerve in the muscly mass from neck to shoulder-blade. |
2. transf. a. A kind of catgut.
| 1880 Spon's Encycl. Manuf. ii. 609 To produce a cord—known as ‘whipcord’—from these intestines. |
b. A close-woven ribbed worsted material used for dresses, riding breeches, etc. Also
attrib.| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 4/2 All Wool Black Whipcord Suiting..shows fine raised satin finished cords running diagonally through the cloth. 1897 Daily News 9 Mar. 6/3 Whipcord coatings, bengalines in silk and wool. 1900 Ibid. 16 Apr. 7/3, 60,000 pairs of whip-cord riding trousers. 1915 R. Beaumont Woollen & Worsted 305 Warp Twills. Fancy Twills—Included in the former are the standard makes of fabric known as whip cords. |
3. Applied (simply or
attrib.) to
a. species of willow with very flexible shoots, as
Salix purpurea or
S. vitellina;
b. species of seaweed with long slender fronds, as
Chorda Filum or
Chordaria flagelliformis.
| 1812 J. Walker Hebrides II. 273 Salix vitellina..is called..the whip-cord willow because its shoots are so tough and flexible, that they can be wrapt round the finger like a whip-cord. 1850 Miss Pratt Comm. Things of Sea-side ii. 125 The Whipcord Fucus (Chordaria flagelliformis). |
Hence
ˈwhipcord v. trans., to furnish with whipcord;
ˈwhipˌcordy a., resembling whipcord, sinewy.
| 1784 R. Robinson Jrnl. 26 May in Belfast Monthly Mag. (1809) June 435/1 Whip-corded the boys' plough whips. 1863 Mrs. Gaskell Cousin Phillis i, in Cornh. Mag. Nov. 627 He has often to whip-cord the plough⁓whips. |
| 1856 S. Wilberforce in Life (1881) II. 336 The Bishop (Exeter) wonderfully hale and *whipcordy. |