Clipper

[klip-er] /ˈklɪp ər/

noun
1.
a person or thing that or cuts.
2.
Often, clippers. (often used with a plural verb) a cutting tool, especially shears:
hedge clippers.
3.
Usually, clippers. (usually used with a plural verb) a mechanical or electric tool for cutting hair, fingernails, or the like: He told the barber, “No clippers on the sides, please.”.
4.
Nautical.. Also called clipper ship. a sailing ship built and rigged for speed, especially a type of three-masted ship with a fast hull form and a lofty rig, built in the U.S. from c1845, and in Great Britain from a later date, until c1870, and used in trades in which speed was more important than cargo capacity.
5.
Electronics. a device that gives output only for an input above or below a certain critical value.
6.
a person or thing that moves along swiftly.
/ˈklɪpə/
noun
1.
any fast sailing ship
2.
a person or thing that cuts or clips
3.
something, such as a horse or sled, that moves quickly
4.
(electronics) another word for limiter
n.

late 14c., “sheepshearer;” early 15c., “a barber;” c.1300 as a surname; agent noun from Middle English clippen “shorten” (see clip (v.1)). The type of fast sailing ship so called from 1823 (in Cooper’s “The Pilot”), probably from clip (v.1) in sense of “to move or run rapidly,” hence early 19c. sense “person or animal who looks capable of fast running.” Perhaps originally simply “fast ship,” regardless of type:

Well, you know, the Go-along-Gee was one o’ your flash Irish cruisers — the first o’ your fir-built frigates — and a clipper she was! Give her a foot o’ the sheet, and she’d go like a witch–but somehow o’nother, she’d bag on a bowline to leeward. [“Naval Sketch-Book,” by “An officer of rank,” London, 1826]

The early association of the ships was with Baltimore, Maryland. Perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch klepper “swift horse,” echoic (Clipper appears as the name of an English race horse in 1831). In late 18c., the word principally meant “one who cuts off the edges of coins” for the precious metal.

noun

A pickpocket: accused her of being a clipper, or pickpocket (1970s+ Police)

1. An integrated circuit which implements the SkipJack algorithm. The Clipper is manufactured by the US government to encrypt telephone data. It has the added feature that it can be decrypted by the US government, which has tried to make the chip compulsory in the United States. Phil Zimmerman (inventor of PGP) remarked, “This doesn’t even pass the sniff test” (i.e. it stinks).
(http://wired.com/clipper/).
news:alt.privacy.clipper
2. A compiled dBASE dialect from Nantucket Corp, LA. Versions: Winter 85, Spring 86, Autumn 86, Summer 87, 4.5 (Japanese Kanji), 5.0. It uses the Xbase programming language.
(2004-09-01)