Clipper Meaning
/ˈklɪp.ə/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAnything or anyone that clips.
nounA tool used for clipping something, such as hair, coins, or fingernails.
Sentence Examples
Do you have a nail clipper I could use?
The hair clipper was plugged in.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He used a nail ____ to trim his overgrown toenails carefully.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
An old ____ ship was seen sailing across the blue ocean today ton.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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, […]"
— 1967, Agatha Christie, chapter 1, in Endless Night, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, published 1968, →LCCN, book 1, pages 2 and 5:
"And those were the days of clippers, and the freights were clipper-freights,"
— 1896, Rudyard Kipling, The Mary Gloster:
"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."
— 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]:
"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."
— 1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, London: J. Bew, act II, page 21:
"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 […]"
— 2010, James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He used a nail ____ to trim his overgrown toenails carefully.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
An old ____ ship was seen sailing across the blue ocean today ton.