Whipcord

sb. [? f. WHIP v. III, with later association of WHIP sb. I + CORD sb.¹]

  1.  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.

1318–9.  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, iid.

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 April 1645. Dashing the knotted and ravelled whipcord over their shoulders.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 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.

1897.  Daily News, 9 March, 6/3. Whipcord coatings, bengalines in silk and wool. Ibid. (1900), 16 April, 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 Whipcord v., (nonce-wd.) trans. to furnish with whipcord; Whipcordy a., resembling whipcord, sinewy.

1811.  Sporting Mag., XXXVII. 33. *Whipcorded the boys’ plough whips.

1856.  S. Wilberforce, in Life (1881), II. 336. The Bishop (Exeter) wonderfully hale and *whipcordy.