Clip

v. t. [imp. & p. p. CLIPPED (klipt); p. pr. & vb. n. CLIPPING.] [A-S. clyppan, to embrace, clasp, Dan. klippe, to clip, cut, to wink, Sw. & Icel. klippa, to cut, shear.]

1Sense 1. To embrace; hence, to encompass. [Obs.]

That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself. Shak.

2Sense 2. To cut off, as with shears or scissors; to separate by a single stroke; especially, to cut off the ends or sides of, to make the thing shorter or narrower; as, to clip the hair; to clip coin.

Your shears come too late to clip the bird's wings that already is flown away. Sidney.

3Sense 3. To curtail; to cut short.

Even in London they clip their words after one manner about the court, another in the city, and the third in the suburbs. Swift.

(Falconry.) To move swiftly;—usually with it.

*Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed, And, with her eagerness, the quarry missed, Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind. Dryden.*