Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an attractive person, esp. a woman.

1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 161: She was [...] a real clipper, and as full o fun and frolic as a kitten.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: A Baltimore girl [...] commonly called the Clipper and clipper she was.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 254: Beautiful models, ain’t they? real clippers.
1861		D. Cook Paul Foster’s Daughter I 230: I say, old fellow, though, isn’t she a clipper?
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 99: ‘Then you likes the looks of my little lass, do you?’ ‘She is a clipper,’ I replied [...] ‘She is very beautiful.’.
1878		Dundee Courier 29 Nov. 7/2: She was a tall, well-developed young lady [...] this was the high-stepper, ‘the regular clipper’, who had reduced the stony heart of Marcus Dagnell into softness.
1881		Vancouver Indep. (WA) 8 Sept. 2/5: They speak of a trim-built sweetheart as ‘clipper-built’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 18: Clipper, a handsome woman.
1903		S.F. Call 22 Nov. 8/2: Before Nettie Jeliffe ridiculed him he had pronounced her a ‘clipper,’ after she had ridiculed him he pronounced her emphatically a ‘corker’ [...] these words [...] both express admiration.

2. an admirable individual.

1841		J. Mills Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 81: ‘Ah!’ exclaimed Peter, with a sigh of admiration, ‘you’re a clipper’.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 81: By Jove, what a beautiful girl [...] I lay a guinea she’s a clipper.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 225: I never saw your equal, and I’ve met with some clippers in my time too.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Dec. 4/7: Morgan D’Arcy suggsted a fight. Morgan was a clipper with the base knuckles when fit and well, but never took advantage of it.

3. a first-rate animal, e.g. a horse or dog.

1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 21: I’ll put you on a most undeniable bit of ’orse-flesh—a reg’lar clipper.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 143: Keep dark. If you have a real right down clipper of a horse in your stable, a doing of nothing, couldn’t you jist whip over to Portland on the 20th, to meet me, in your waggon?
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: May I be lagged (transported) [...] if he [i.e. a dog] ain’t an out an out clipper.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 241: Not a knacker’s sort of horse, mind yer, but a regler clipper.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 77: The English horse took to wall-jumping beautifully; but it was doubted [...] if he bad the foot of the Irish mare — a clipper.
1884		H. Smart Post to Finish I 272: [of a racehorse] No idea, of course, you had such a clipper.
1890		Kipling ‘Private Learoyd’s Story’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 18: A real clipper of a dog, an’ it’s noa wonder yon lady [...] should tek a fancy tiv him.

4. an excellent thing.

1851		Leics. Mercury 19 Apr. 3/7: This is a corker, said one. This is a clipper, said another.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 472: Whatever sport the hounds had – and of course they would have a clipper – we can answer for it Mr. Pringle had a capital run.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 125/1: They [ducks] come over here when the weather’s a clipper, for you see cold weather suits some birds.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 123: Before Nettie Jeliffe had ridiculed him he had pronounced her a ‘clipper,’ after she had ridiculed him he pronounced her emphatically a ‘corker’. No very definite ideas are attached to either of these words, but they both express admiration, and ‘corker’ is more nearly extreme than ‘clipper’.
1903		Truth (London) 18 June 1678/3: Slang terms: [...] cheese, clipper, crack, crushing, down-the-road, extensive [etc] .
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 July 24/4: Then Bill shied a lumbering punch at Jim and missed, whereas Jim, whose straight left was a clipper, jambed William’s nose so hard up that for a moment the latter citizen bore a distressing resemblance to a pet pug.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 310: He could see they were clippers, and worth, at least, £50 a head.