Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a bus conductress, who orig. clipped tickets.

1940		Gloucs. Echo 12 Dec. 3/3: The Duke of Kent talked with a number of ‘clippies’ [...] when he visited three London transport garages.
1945		E. Rutherford 14 Nov. diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 125: I had to laugh at the description in the Daily Express today of bus clippies after the match yesterday trying to enforce this ‘no standing’ law on 85,000 football fans.
1958		G. Usher Death in Bag 5: The father was a young farm-worker, the mother an ex-clippie on a local bus.
1962		B. McGhee Cut and Run (1963) 174: He raced in pursuit and jumped aboard, violently pushing the clippie in the process.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 68: I was standing, since there were no seats, in the recess where the clippie normally stands.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 52: She’d lost her purse, and tried to explain to the ‘clippie’ (ticket examiner) who wouldn’t take her word for it.
1999		Observer 11 July 7: I’ve got West Indian clippies [...] because I like the idea of a woman who can do her job well and be very unaware of her looks.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] The clippie gave him a big smile as he rang the bell [of the tram].
2021		London Rev. Books 16 Dec. 🌐 ‘It’s Doris Day as a Glasgow clippie.’ ‘That’s a bus conductress...’.