Also 4 tryppe, 5 tripe, 5–6 trippe, 6 Sc. trype, 7 tripp. [Etymology obscure: perh. related to troop.]
† 1. A troop or company of men. Obs. rare.
(App. in contemptuous use.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 203. Me þouht kyng Philip inouh was disconfite, Whan he & alle his trip [orig. tut sun hoste] for nouht fled so tite.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 157. Think not it wilbe ane trype [v.r. troup] of men of weir of France that will … conqueis this realme.
2. a. A small flock (of goats, sheep, hares, etc.). Obs. exc. local.
1305. [implied in tripherd].
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 186. Scho … with hir tuke a tryppe of gayte, With mylke of thame for to bayte To hir lyves fode.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), v. Þat men calle a trippe of tame swyne, and of wylde swyne it is called a soundre.
c. 1470. in Hors, Shepe, & G., etc. (Caxton, 1479, Roxb. repr.), 31. A Trippe of gete. A Trippe of hares.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., IV. xix. Ibid., V. (Parl. Beasts), xxxvi. Ane trip of lambis dansing on ane dyke. Ibid., VII. (Lion & Mouse), i. Ane trip of myis … Richt tait and trig, all dansand in ane gyis.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. iv. 24. Trippis eik of gait, but ony keipar, In the rank gersis pasturing on raw.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1563), 14 b/2. A flocke or trippe of goates.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 235. Huntesmen vse to saye an Heard of harts and hindes, buckes and does: and a Trippe of Gotes and Geates.
1584. in Five Crt. Rolls Gt. Cressingham, Norfolk (ed. Chandler, 1885), 80. A certeyn trippe of sheep.
1674. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 77. A Trip of sheep i. e. a few sheep, Norf.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 101. They are generally owners of trips or small flocks of sheep, depastured upon Exmoor.
a. 1905. in Eng. Dial. Dict. (Norfolk), I ha’ got a trip of sheep.
b. A small flock of wild-fowl.
1805. Mackintosh, Driffield Angler, 294. Trip of dotterel.
1826. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 291. A fine trip of wigeon.
1859. Folkard, Wild-Fowler, liii. 276. Trip after trip [of wild-fowl] passes over his head in rapid succession.
1893. Daily News, 28 Feb., 5/4. Wild ducks … are seen hurrying across the lawn with large ‘trips’ of young ones.
3. Comb. † tripherd, a goatherd, or shepherd.
1305. Compotus of Bolton Abbey, in Whitaker, Hist. Craven (1805), 330. In pane pro triphyrdes sarculant’ metent’. Ibid. (1317), 338. Pro Tripherds.
