klip, noun

/kləp/
Plurals:
klips, and (formerly) klippen.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African DutchShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch.
1. A rock, stone, or pebble; klippie sense 1.
1835 T.H. Bowker Journal. 13 Jan.Fall in with CB at the Barracks..sell klips for goods.
1835 A. Smith Diary (1940) II. 26As a woman’s husband dies the Dr. must make red klip and medicine into a mixture if she will marry another man.
1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld 50Stooping to set large klips (stones) behind the wheel, to prevent the wagon from slipping back.
1925 H.J. Mandelbrote tr. of O.F. Mentzel’s Descr. of Cape of G.H. II. 30Klippen, Submerged rocks or those exposed at low tide.
1931 G. Beet Grand Old Days 113Schalk van Niekerk..happened to call on my mother, and, noticing the pretty stone, said, ‘Give me this klip. I think it may be a diamond.’
1992 G. Etherington in Weekend Post 9 May (Leisure) 4We sat, backs to the klip looking at the greenery around us until it was dark.
2. A diamond; blink klip sense 2; blink klippie; klippie sense 2; steentjie sense 2; cf. stone.
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 108Ye who have despised the lowly pebble, go ye to the Dutoitspan road...What might of pain and terror lies in the smooth, round product of the brook!..I do allege these klips to be a thing of downright dread.
1887 J.W. Matthews Incwadi Yami 186The natives had not yet acquired a knowledge of the value of diamonds or klips as they were then termed.
1892 J.R. Couper Mixed Humanity 48Flogged to death for stealing a ‘klip’ (as the Dutch and many of the Kaffirs call a diamond).
1897 Pearson’s Mag. July 67Fifteen years on that blathted breakwater, just for being found with a few little klips on you.
1911 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Kimberley 35‘Alamachtig,’ he ejaculated, ‘I’ll show you the “klip”. Here it is.’ With that he pulled out his snuff-box..; inside was a fairly sized beautiful octahedron diamond, called in the trade a glassy stone.
1962 F.C. Metrowich Scotty Smith 53His Hottentot ‘achter-ryer’ said, ‘Baas, take off the cups of the cartwheels and see if the klips are not to be found there.’ They did so, and sure enough the parcel was there.
1983 R.L. Fish Rough Diamond 11A Hottentot shepherd, tending his flocks not far from where Erasmus Jacobs had found his pretty glasslike klip, found another shining stone..to become the famous Star of Africa.
3. The kingklip (sense 2), Genypterus capensis.
1873 Cape Monthly Mag. VII. July–Dec. 147Fish there were in plenty, The Klip, the Hottentot. Busily they plied their lines And very many caught.
4. klip-klip.
1976 E. Prov. Herald 9 Feb. 6Call it ‘klip’ or ‘five stones’ or ‘potjie-kook’ it’s all the same as the game called ‘knuckles’.
5. slang. clipper.
1992 M.D. Prentice Informant, Durban, KwaZulu-NatalKlip — R100.
A rock, stone, or pebble; klippie sense 1.
The kingklip (sense 2), Genypterus capensis.
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klinker, nounn.klip, verb transitivev.
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