a flat wire or plastic clip shaped so that it can hold sheets of paper between two of its loops.
a spring clamp for holding papers.
First recorded in 1870–75
First recorded in 1960–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even a tiny magnet can lift a paper clip against the pull of Earth's entire gravitational field.
From Science Daily ● May 18, 2026
Channeling the fictional 1980s secret agent MacGyver, he unwound the paper clip and stuck it in his TV’s coaxial port to get a signal.
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
He tossed the paper clip onto his desk blotter; now he stroked his beard some more.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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
Nine broad missions were defined, such as strategic forces and general-purpose forces, and the Army, Navy and Air Force departments were compelled to integrate their efforts whether the activity was nuclear targeting or paper-clip purchases.
From Time Magazine Archive
The company even boasts of "zero paper-clip attrition" because it strips the clips from incoming mail rather than buying new ones.
From Time Magazine Archive
I wonder what pages I should paper-clip together so Ms. Jacobs doesn’t read them.
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
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.
