Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to have sexual intercourse; thus clipping n., sexual intercourse .

c.1520		The Boke of Mayd Emlyn line 346: She toke another [lover] that lustily could do [...] Bycause he could clepe her.
1560		Nice Wanton Biiii: Al’was good, that these tiddyinges do might, Sweare, lye, steale, scolde or fight: Cardes, dyce, kysse, clippe, and so furth.
1584		Three Ladies of London III: Tell me, is it not a Lordes life in Sommer to lowse one under a hedge, And then leauing that game, may go clepe and coll his Madge?
1586		Ferne Blazon of Gentrie 63: That wife ... which clepeth with her adulterer.
1598		Marston ‘Ad Rythmum’ Satyres II E1: As willingly come mete and iumpe together, / As new ioyn’d loues, when they doe clip each other.
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe II i: All wiues loue clipping.
1608		Machin & Markham Dumbe Knight III i: You shall take them as they clip each other. Euen in the height of sin, then dam them both.
1616–20		Middleton Mayor of Quinborough (1661) III i: A Springe to catch a Maiden-head after Sun-set, Clip it, and send it home again to the City.
1675		T. Duffet Mock Songs 52: They kiss us, and clips us, / And still in pleasure keep us.

2. to hit, to tap sharply.

1560		E. More Schole house of Women Ciiii: She clypte hys heere [i.e. ear].
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 2: The Ape so long clippeth her young that at last she killeth them.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas II i: Strip him, Whip him [...] Clip him, Rip him.
1840		W.G. Simms Border Beagles (1855) 298: You’ve clipped me over my noddle already.
1872		C.L. Brace Dangerous Classes of NY 111: [H]e clipt me over the head with an iron pot, and knocked me down.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 100: Clip, a blow. To clip, to give a blow.
1893		S. Crane in Truth (N.Y.) 3 June in Stallman (1966) 23: Win he clipped little Patsey wid th’ bottle, an’ didn’t he buy th’ big rickin’-horse th’ minit he got sober?
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 25: Every time you make a board creak, I’ll clip yer.
1901		A. Perry [perf. Marie Lloyd] William ’Enry Sarnders 🎵 Wot’s up with you and Polly? Have you clipt her round the ear?
1911		J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 13: With all his skill and all his might / He clipped me dizzy left and right.
1920		Marvel 12 June 5: He clipped Bayne on the chin.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 241: He had clipped a truck driver on the ear with a snowball.
1941		J.K. Butler ‘Saint in Silver’ in Goulart (1967) 50: Her boyfriend made no move to clip me.
1951		S. Hanna Bell December Bride 261: I could go back and clip that boyo one.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] His mouth still stung where she had clipped him.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 49: I grabbed one of them [...] and clipped the other one.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 123: He clipped me a couple of times because [...] I said something he didn’t like.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 149: Say like she’s a basketballl player and she’s got this ugly on her thigh where somebody clipped her.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 71: She’d see her [...] shouting at one or another of them, clipping another, nondescriptly dressed.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 163: The mutie must’ve been the one that got clipped by the train.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [T]he cabbie [was] clipped for damaging the bike.

3. to caress, to embrace; given the ambivalent status of sexuality, it is possible that some of these citations (e.g. 1637) may in fact be euphs. for sense 1 .

1590		Book of Sir Thomas Moore facs.(S) (1911) I viii: In hope his highnesse clemencie (and) mercie, which in the armes of milde and meeke compassion would rather clip you, as the loouing Nursse oft dooth [...] then to leaue you, to the sharp rodd of Iustice.
1601		Marston Jacke Drums Entertainment Act V: We clip with ioful arms each others wast.
1628		Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests E1: They kissed, and clipped, And yet it was counted no crime.
1637		Dekker Canting Song in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: Couch a Hogs-head with me than, in the Dark-mans clip and kisse.
1656		R. Fletcher ‘Sing-song on Clarinda’s Wedding’ Epigrams and Poems 229: O what kissing and clipping was there!
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 43: Thrice strove I for to clip and kiss her.
1684		J. Lacy Sir Hercules Buffoon IV iii: O let me kiss and clip, and hug thee!
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Clip to hug or embrace. To clip and cling, of a close hug or fast embrace.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 25: Thy dainty Body I will clip.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1826		Liverpool Mercury 20 Jan. 6/1: I’m bright without — within I’m dark, / Like many a specious flashy spark / [...] / The stateliest dame, the coyest miss / Will clip with me but never kiss.

4. (orig. US, also clip in) to defraud, to steal from, to rob.

1674		Hogan-Moganides 29: The rest were Taylors, All famous Snips, for Clipping, Coyning, For filching Cabbage, and Purloyning.
1887		Lantern (N.O.) 4 June 4: Wonder if the Mexican driver on Magazine line car 25 don’t clip in two dollars a day!
1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 102: When a chump is clipped for his bankroll the resultant squeal is natural.
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ Coll. Stories (1990) 163: One could get umpteen years for clipping one bus.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 377: He pulls the sub stuff about Pard so he can clip suckers.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 216: I’m already clipped for thirty grand.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 117: It [i.e. the city government] was rigged like a slot machine to clip the suckers and pay off the operator.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 114: You’ve acted like king of the hill and clipped the Colonel, and me, for every penny you could get.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 52: He got clipped for over $2,700.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 36: I used to clip a pan of steaks.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 222: I had a first-class wardrobe and a Jaguar sports car, although it was evident to me that it was a lemon and the used car lot had clipped me.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 251: Guy’s been clipping his own money.
2006		Burns & Lehane ‘Refugees’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 4 [TV script] You just clip that shit and act like I ain’t even there.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 51: Big Time Tommy wouldn’t be happy if he knew about Donnie clipping dough off the top.

5. (US) to shoot, usu. dead.

[1904		(ref. to 1804) N.Y. Tribune 3 July 33/1: In the home of Major Richard Church [...] lie today the pistols which Burr and Hamilton used [...] It was he who offered them to Hamilton when told the duel was inevitable, with the remark, ‘They ought to bring you luck, for they’ve clioped Burr once already’.
1916		J.N. Hall Kitchener’s Mob 117: Tyke yer field-glasses an’ watch me clip the next one.
1928		Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 13 Nov. in AS III:3 255/2: Clip. To shoot dead.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 42: You better take a walk before somebody clips you. [Ibid.] ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ 143: I am never sure he does not clip Louie the Lug just to get a place in our quartet.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 10: A motorman got clipped by a stray bullet right in front of this bar.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 35: He’s such a strutting jerk, somebody is due to clip him.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 91: Then he had to clip the chicken in the head to save it for evidence.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1989		(con. 1920s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 187: Then the wops started to get in it, and they started to knock off the Jews, they started to clip them. This was in ’26, ’28, around then.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 3 Oct. 6: Jimmy’s just been whacked [...] And now I think Tony’s going to clip Uncle Junior.
2004		K. Bruen ‘Fade To . . . Brooklyn’ in Brooklyn Noir 311: Clip. Whack. Pop. Burn. All the great terms Americans have for putting your lights out.
2008		T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 170: He’d cap anybody, clip ’em three, four at a time.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 56: I can only begin to imagine the roasting the jockey will get from Lanky’s gang [...] he’ll be lucky not to get clipped.
2013		T.F. Dunham ‘Soul Collection’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] ‘I’ll clip you. I’ll put my piece right up to your chest and shoot you through the heart’.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 157: ‘So, if there’s anything he can have you on, remember it if you have second thoughts about clipping him’.

6. (US) to place under arrest.

1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 72: You’re the one who is wide open, and you’re going to get clipped by a craphouse – pardon me – full of law if you don’t get on that telephone and get your licks in first.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 58: I never second-guessed myself or the guy who clipped me out in the open.

7. (US drugs) to adulterate a drug.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

8. to beat, i.e. in a card game.

1953		‘John Monahan’ [W.R. Burnett] Big Stan 100: Joe came in grinning. ‘I beat ‘em,’ he cried. ‘I clipped those wise guys for four bucks’.
1963		A.E. Morgan Six-Eleven (1966) 224: I’ve been clipping all of you for months. Stupid bastards.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 133: Boy, you clipped me for ten grand and the others for at least another five.

9. to esteem as, to reckon.

1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 86: I had things nicely figured out with Lilly clipped as the head man.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 229: Thanks, champ. You clipped me in. I just won the fight. You just won the fight for me.