# clipper
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English clipper, equivalent to clip (“cut, shorten”) +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns). The type of sailing ship is probably also from clip, in the sense of “move or run rapidly”. Perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch klepper (“swift horse”), from kleppen (“to clap”), which is onomatopoeic.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Noun

clipper (plural clippers)
* Anything or anyone that clips.
** 1967, Agatha Christie, chapter 1, in Endless Night, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, published 1968, →LCCN, book 1, pages 2 and 5:Yes, perhaps I’d better begin there, at the moment when I […] asked a question carelessly enough of one of the locals, who was clipping a hedge in a desultory fashion nearby. […] When I passed my hedge clipper again, he said, […]
* (chiefly in the plural) A tool used for clipping something, such as hair, coins, or fingernails.
* Something that moves swiftly; especially:
** (nautical) Any of several forms of very fast sailing ships having a long, low hull and a sharply raked stem.
** (informal) An Alberta clipper.
* (entomology) An Asian butterfly of species Parthenos sylvia, family Nymphalidae.
* (electronics) A circuit which prevents the amplitude of a wave from exceeding a set value.
* (historical) A person who mutilates coins by fraudulently paring the edges.
** 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the king himself will be a clipper.
** 1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal‎, London: J. Bew, act II, page 21:Many a wretch who has been drawn upon a hurdle, has done less mischief than those barterers of forged lies, coiners of scandal, and clippers of reputation.
** 2010, James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder:Surtouts billowing in an unseasonably fierce wind, the ursine Chelmsford magistrate and his equally bulky constable herded their bound prisoners – three murderers, three thieves, a coin clipper, two convicted witches – across the Common […]
* (slang) A confidence trickster; a conman.
** 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:"You have head enough for both of us, Beck," said he. "You're sure to get us out of the scrape. I never saw your equal, and I've met with some clippers in my time too."
* (slang, obsolete) Anything showy or first-rate.
** 1838, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker:Well, he was courtin' Sister Sall. She was a real handsum looking gal; […] a real clipper, and as full of fun and frolic as a kitten.

#### Derived terms

* Alberta clipper
* Baltimore clipper
* Canadian clipper
* clipper system
* Colorado clipper
* nail clipper

#### Descendants

* Dutch: (nautical) klipper, klipperaak m or f

#### Translations
### Verb

clipper (third-person singular simple present clippers, present participle clippering, simple past and past participle clippered)
* (transitive) To cut or style (the hair) using clippers.
** 2020 November 16, Dave Finlay, “Killer sliced open inmate's face while serving life for murdering dad and cutting up body”, in Glasgow Live‎:Rocks was having his hair clippered by another prisoner when Collins calmly walked past and sliced open the side of his face without breaking his stride.

### See also

* Clipper chip

### References

* ↑ “clipper, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* 1 2 3 Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “clipper (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Walter W[illiam] Skeat (1910) “CLIPPER”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new (4th) revised and enlarged edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Clarendon Press, published 1963, →OCLC, page 114, column 2: “CLIPPER, a fast horse, a fast ship. (Du.) Modem; modified from Du. klepper, a steed.—Du. kleppen, to clap; with reference to the noise of hoofs.”

### Anagrams

* cripple

## French
### Etymology 1

From English clipper.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kli.pœʁ/
* Audio:(file)

#### Noun

clipper m (plural clippers)
* (nautical) heavy sailing ship
* (aviation) transatlantic airplane

### Etymology 2

From clip.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kli.pe/

#### Verb

clipper
* (transitive) to clip

##### Conjugation
### References

* Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition

### Further reading

* “clipper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.