paper clip
noun
a flat wire or plastic clip shaped so that it can hold sheets of paper between two of its loops.
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paper clip
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paper-clip
paper-clipverb (used with object)to fasten together with one or more paper clips.
paper clip
1 Americannoun
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paper clips
plural
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a flat wire or plastic clip shaped so that it can hold sheets of paper between two of its loops.
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a spring clamp for holding papers.
paper-clip
2
American
[pay-per-klip]
/ ˈpeɪ pərˈklɪp /
verb (used with object)
paper-clipped,
paper-clipping
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of paper clip1
First recorded in 1870–75
Origin of paper-clip2
First recorded in 1960–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A magnet roughly the size of a pinhead can lift a paper clip against the gravitational pull of the entire Earth.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
So he found a workaround: a paper clip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
After a few weeks, Webb had read it and stuck a paper clip — about 500 in all — over every passage that might offend the higher-ups.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
The paper clip scenario and others like it are science fiction.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 12, 2023
Pinkus worked his paper clip into a pretzel.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Result: whiffs of the paper-clip maximizer, an ancient AI thought experiment in which a computer ends up consuming all planetary resources pursuant to its instruction to make paper clips.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
It was his second victory on the 0.526-mile, paper-clip shaped oval.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2024
It takes ingenuity to glean guffaws from paper-clip holders, an overhead projector, a birthday cake and a chamber orchestra of office stamps and staplers.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2011
Getting rid of that hideous animated paper-clip help guy, however, took way too long, though you can blame this on Microsoft, not chip speed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ms. Jacobs said when we turn in our journals, we can paper-clip together any pages we don’t want her to read.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
He also showed Smith a paper-clipped charred stack of paper currency that had faint signatures of U.S. money.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2018
Time passed, and occasionally an internal envelope would arrive with a printed report from Tony and a screen-shot paper-clipped to it.
From Nature ● Dec. 30, 2014
In a late-May interview with Politico, Timothy Geithner held up a pocket Constitution with one page paper-clipped.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2011
Next to the name, a paper-clipped photograph, taken upon enlistment, I presume, when the boys and men were freshly shaven and their eyes were not yet tired.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The drawer next to the stove was where my mother kept leftover duck sauce, soy sauce, chopsticks, menus, tape, screwdrivers, but most importantly, all her coupons, organized and paper-clipped by product.
From "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
