1. One who clips; spec. a sheep-shearer.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. liii. 7. As a lomb bifore the clippere itself he shal become doumb.
1567. Act 1 Jas. VI. (1597), § 19. The clipper [of false money] to haue ane penny of ilk pound.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 21. An ordinary clipper will … clippe threescore, or threescore and tenne, sheepe in a day.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Conclus. Clippers of Regal Power, and shavers of the Laws.
1863. P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 149. Platers, riveters, drillers, clippers.
† b. A hair-dresser or barber. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 82. Clyppare, tonsor, tonsatrix.
1483. Cath. Angl., 67. A Clipper, tonsor.
2. spec. One who clips coin; cf. CLIP v.2 4.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 238. Of clippers, of roungers, of suilk takes he questis.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 176. Fals money makers and clepars of money.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 246. It is no English Treason to cut French Crownes, and to morrow the King himselfe will be a Clipper.
1691. Locke, Money, Wks. 1727, II. 93. Whilst clipp’d Money passes, Clippers will certainly be at Work.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 404. Five persons … were carried … to York Castle, on suspicion of being clippers and coiners.
1884. A. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, 105. Three other clippers … were found to be in possession of £400 in clippings.
b. fig.
1636. Abp. Williams, Holy Table (1637), 90. Speak truth … and shame the Divell; for he is the old Clipper of speaches.
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., II. i. Utterers of forged tales, coiners of scandal, and clippers of reputation.
3. That which clips, applied to various clipping or cutting instruments, e.g., a reaping or pruning hook, and in pl. scissors, shears, etc. (see quots.).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxxxiii. 436. A yellowe flower … in the midle whereof ye may see a thing like to a little clipper.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Clipper … a machine for clipping hair … especially used for horses.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Clippers, scissors.
1884. Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 148. The women … clipped them [the sheep] … with huge scissors or clippers.
4. One who or that which clips, moves swiftly, or scuds along; (cf. CLIP v.2 7). a. A swift horse. (Sometimes more indefinitely, as in c.)
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, xcii. Away she gallops … faster than Turpin’s ride to York, On Bess, that notable clipper.
1856. Whyte-Melville, Kate Cov., iv. What a clipper that off-horse is!
1887. H. Smart, Cleverly Won, v. 38. No one will ever know what a clipper she is till they see her over a steeplechase course.
b. A fast-sailing vessel; one with sharp, forward-raking bows and masts raking aft: ‘formerly chiefly applied to the sharp-built raking schooners of America, and latterly to Australian passenger-ships’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xiii. She must be a clipper as catches us!
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict. (L.), Clipper … a sharp-built vessel whereof the stem and stern-post, especially the former, have a great rake…. This kind of bow is termed a clipper bow, and a vessel so built a clipper, or clipper-built vessel.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, VIII. ix. II. 407. Aberdeen clippers became famous.
1884. G. W. Sheldon, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 223/1. The first clipper … was the Rainbow, of 750 tons, built about the year 1843 by Smith and Dimon for the China trade.
c. slang. Applied in praise to a person or thing excellent or first-rate of its kind. Cf. CLIPPING ppl. a.2 b.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xvi. (1853), 125. I never saw your equal [Beck], and I’ve met with some clippers in my time. Ibid. (1854), Newcomes, I. 124. Wasn’t Reynolds a clipper!… And wasn’t Rubens a brick?
1873. Slang Dict., Clipper … applied … as a term of encomium to a handsome woman…. Anything showy or first-rate.
1876. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Clipper, a clever person. ‘A clipper at talking.’
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 4) clipper-bow, -builder, -built; also clipper-ship = CLIPPER 4 b; clipper-sled, a sledge built for rapid travelling.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, iv. 7. A small, *clipper-built brig.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Clipper, Clipper-built, Sharp and fast; low in the water; rakish.
1881. Daily Tel., 5 July, 2/2. Superbly modelled craft, whose lines would have made the old Baltimore *clipper-builders green with envy.
1853. Ann. Reg., 130. These fast vessels have received the name of *‘clipper-ships.’
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xx. § 817. It is these winds and waves which … have enabled the modern clipper-ship to attain a speed … at first … considered fabulous.
1883. E. E. Hale, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 146/1. A large two-handed boy’s sled … twice as wide and twice as long as your *clipper-sled.
