clip

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small device used to hold things together or in place.

   Use this clip to keep the papers together.

2. 2
   verb

   To fasten or attach something with a clip.

   Please clip the photo to the top of the page.

3. 3
   verb

   To cut something with scissors or shears, especially to make it shorter or neater.

   He clipped the hedge into a neat shape.

4. 4
   verb

   To cut off a small piece of something.

   I clipped the loose thread from my shirt.

From Middle English clippen, cleppen, clüppen, from Old English clyppan (“to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glemb-, *glembʰ- (“lump, clump, clod, clamp”). Cognate with Old Frisian kleppa, klippa (“to hug, embrace”), Middle High German klimpen, klimpfen (“to contract tightly, constrict, squeeze”).

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