fillip
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English filippen, philippe (“to flick or snap a finger from against the thumb”); further origin uncertain, but probably imitative. See flip. It is not clear whether the verb is derived from the noun, or vice versa.
Inflected forms:
form: fillips
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: fillips
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: filliping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: fillipping
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
present
form: filliped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: filliped
pos: verb
tags: past
form: fillipped
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: fillipped
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
Senses:
gloss: The action of holding the tip of a finger against the thumb and then releasing it with a snap; a flick.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: And let him ſuppoſe, that if a Man in the beginning of the World, or four or five hundred Years ago, had laid a little round Marble upon a Table, and to put the ſame in Motion, had given it a Fillip with his Finger; the ſaid Marble, according to the abovemention'd Law of Nature, would (if no other Force had oppos'd its Motion) have moved to this very Minute with the ſame Velocity in a Right-Line, and without ceaſing, would have continued to run in the ſame Line ſuch a Length, as no Man could determine the end of.
gloss: A sharp strike or tap made using this action, or (by extension) by other means.
pos: noun
examples: The blasphemy done to a mortal man is punished with the sword, and shall the blasphemy done to God escape think you with a fillip in the forehead, or with the knock of a little wooden betel, as it is begun to be punished in certain men's houses now of late? Nay, verily. It is no fillip matter except we will admit such a fillip as shall fillip them down into the bottom of hell-fire. God is no puppet, nor a babe. It is not a fillip that can wipe away the blasphemy of his most blessed name, before his high throne and glorious majesty.
Arch[ers]. In default of six pistoles, / Choose then without ado / To receive thirty fillips, / Or twelve blows with the stick. / Punch. If it must be, and that I must pass through that, I choose the fillips.
gloss: Something unimportant, a trifle; also, the brief time it takes to flick one's finger (see noun sense 1); a jiffy.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: Eat, drink and love; the rest's not worth a fillip.
Now among the treasures in the palace of the Dragon King of the World Under the Sea were two jewels having wondrous power over the tides. [...] Whoever owned them had the power to make the tides instantly rise or fall at his word, to make the dry land appear, or the sea overwhelm it, in the fillip of a finger.
gloss: Something that excites or stimulates.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: This measure gave a fillip to the housing market.
The athlete’s victory provided a much-needed fillip for national pride.
He sat at the head of the table with his hat on, and an eye beaming even more luminously than his nose. He had a quiz and a fillip for every one, and a good thing on every occasion.
Changes, however, such as we all require, must by no means be confused with fillips—artificial stimulants, which are bad for everybody. These last may be easily recognised and known for what they are, by their suddenness and violence, as well as by the temporary character of their effects.
Some branches [of the Wolverhampton iron and steel trade] are quiet, a few are slack, but generally they are, for the most part, well employed. The outlook cannot be so well gauged. It only requires a bit of a spurt to give a fillip to several branches, and these would stimulate the rest.
The outline could apply to most of the self-effacing, increasingly inward-looking comedies written and directed by Hong Sang-soo, and it certainly describes "The Day He Arrives," an agreeably meandering exercise that brings some clever French New Wave fillips and structural repetitions to Hong's characteristically boozy party.
Labor has emerged victorious in critical byelection contests in Tasmania and Queensland in a significant fillip for the federal leader, Bill Shorten, boosting its primary vote in Longman and harvesting the lion’s share of preferences in Braddon.
In a fillip to the Labour government, the Washington-based organisation said it expected the UK economy to grow by 1.6% in 2025, up from an earlier forecast of 1.5%.
gloss: To strike, project, or propel with a fillip (that is, a finger released quickly after being pressed against the thumb); to flick.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Mene[laus]. An odde man Lady, euery man is odde. / Creſ[ſida]. No Paris is not, for you know tis true, / That you are odde and he is euen with you. / Mene. You fillip me a'th head.
The Sounds that produce Tones, are euer from ſuch Bodies, as are in their Parts and Pores Equall; As well as the Sounds themſelues are Equall; And ſuch as are the Percuſſions of Metall, as in Bels; Of Glaſſe, as in the Fillipping of a Drinking Glaſſe; [...]
[...] If one Man upon angry Words ſhall make an Aſſault upon another, either by pulling him by the Noſe, or filliping upon the Forehead, and that he is ſo aſſaulted ſhall draw his Sword, and immediately run the other through, that is but Manſlaughter; for the Peace is broken by the Perſon killed, and with an Indignity to him that received the Aſſault.
Quail combats were well known among the ancients, especially at Athens. [...] Another practice was to produce one of these birds, which being first smitten or filliped with the middle finger, a feather was then plucked from its head: if the quail bore this operation without flinching, his master gained the stake, but lost it if he ran away.
He talked on, therefore, at great length, while I merely leaned back in my chair with my eyes shut, and amused myself with munching raisins and filliping the stems about the room.
gloss: To project quickly; to snap.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: Yet he obſerv'd how ſtill his Iron Balls / Recoyl'd in vain againſt our Oaken Walls. / How the hard Pellets fell away as dead, / By our inchanted Timber fillipped.
The use of the elastic switch to fillip small missiles with, and the remarkable elastic darts of the Pelew Islands, bent and made to fly by their own spring, indicate inventions which may have led to that of the bow, while the arrow is a miniature form of the javelin.
gloss: To strike or tap smartly.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: [I]t was almost, if not quite as fine in Napoleon, hitting the Frenchmen between wind and water, filliping their chivalry on the one hand, by absolutely disbelieving that so many would go about to kill one man, and catching their admiration of courage on the other, by affecting to consider them as too few to intimidate him: [...]
The most convenient pleximeter is the middle finger of the left hand, smoothly applied by its palmar surface on the part to be percussed. [...] The stroke is made, in most cases, with the tips of the two or three first fingers brought to a level, or with only a single finger. [...] Percussion may be strong or gentle; in the latter case, the stroke may be made by filliping gently upon the back of a single finger, or upon the nail. By gentle percussion, a sound is elicited whose character will depend on the condition of the wall, and of the parts immediately beneath it; whereas, when it is forcible, the deeper tissues will modify the result.
The boughs were so tangled that in following the obstructed track it became necessary to screen his face with his hands to escape the risk of having his eyes filliped out by the twigs that impeded his progress.
He [Ishi] combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it frequently, drying it by filliping it and beating it with a small stick as it hung in the sunlight.
gloss: To drive as if by a fillip (noun sense 1); to excite, stimulate, whet.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: The spicy aroma filliped my appetite.
Grand snoozing to-night, maty; fat night for that. I mark this in our old Mogul's wine; it’s quite as deadening to some as filliping to others.
gloss: To make a fillip (noun sense 1) (with the fingers).
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: As they were drinking after dinner, the prince jocosely dipped his finger in a glass of wine, and fillipped it into Oglethorpe's face.
"Oh! we have done very, very wrong in giving our daughter in marriage to you, for if I but fillip my finger, and the fillip should fall on her baby's eye, it will be blind, and there will be our poor little grandchild with only one eye." "But where is the child?" said the Sultan. "It may come, you know;" answered Gertrude. "You are all foolish," cried the Sultan, angrily; "I have not yet married your daughter, and yet you are weeping for the fate of her child; Isabella is very beautiful, but far too foolish for my wife; good bye, I will have nothing to say to any of you."
Related words: flip
Derived words: filliping
Translations: