clipped
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of clipped
Explanation
Use the adjective clipped for things that are cut very short — or for things that sound that way. "A clipped lawn is better for croquet," she announced in clipped tones. While you can use clipped where you'd use words like "shorn" or "trimmed," it's more common for this adjective to describe a particular way of speaking. If someone talks in a slightly irritated, very direct way, using sharp, short sounds, their speech is clipped. You can hear the difference between your math teacher's laid back "Hey kids, have a seat!" and your gym teacher's clipped command, "Take a knee. Now."
Vocabulary lists containing clipped
"Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou
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Novel Study: Fences, Act 2
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The Brightwood Code
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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.
They’d seen lots of video podcasts being clipped and reposted on social media and thought: Could you make a show that was only clips?
From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026
This means the conversion itself might be taxed at your ordinary rate, while your portfolio income quietly gets clipped by an extra 3.8%.
From MarketWatch • May 8, 2026
And therein lies another problem: A lot of users also aren’t following the clips through to their primary sources, because everything is being clipped and pushed in their faces now.
From Slate • May 6, 2026
“It was tricky. I was moving fast, clipped the eighth hurdler and lost my balance. That’s never happened to me before.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
The phone hit the pavement face-first, bounced up and around, and clipped the corner.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
