Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLIP, v.t. [Sax. clypan; Dan. klipper; Sw. klippa. The sense seems to be, to strike, to cut off by a sudden stroke. The Danish word signifies not only to cut off with scissors, but to wink or twinkle with the eyes. In our popular dialect, a clip is a blow or stroke; as, to hit one a clip. Cut is used in a like sense. The radical sense then is, to strike or drive with a sudden effort, thrust or spring.]

1. To cut off with shears or scissors; to separate by a sudden stroke; especially to cut off the ends or sides of a thing, to make it shorter or narrower, in distinction from shaving and paring, which are performed by rubbing the instrument close to the thing shaved; as, to clip the hair; to clip wings. But love had clipped his wings and cut him short. – Dryden.
2. To diminish coin by paring the edge. – Locke.
3. To curtail; to cut short. – Addison.
4. To confine, limit, restrain, or hold; to hug. [Little used.] – Shak. To clip it, is a vulgar phrase in New England for to run with speed. So cut is used; cut on, run fast. This seems to be the meaning of Dryden: Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed, / And with her eagerness the quarry missed, / Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind. This sense would seem to be allied to that of leap.