English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Onomatopoeia for two footsteps in succession.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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clip-clop (plural clip-clops)

  1. (onomatopoeia) The sound of steps on hard ground, especially of a horse's hooves.
    • 1925, Zane Grey, The Thundering Herd[1]:
      The wagon creaked, swayed, moved on to strange accompaniment— clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. The horses were trotting on hard road.
    • 1984, Anthony C. Yu, tr. 吴承恩, 西游记 (Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West) [2]
      With loud clip-clops, several middle-aged women ran out from within to stare at the T’ang monk, grinning stupidly all the time.
    • 2001, Dave Zorn, Dinky Dau: Love, War, and the Corps[3]:
      Suddenly I heard the familiar “clip-clop, clip-clop” of shower shoes coming up the path behind me—and a rapid pace it was.
    • 2003, Ann Redisch Stampler, Something for Nothing [4]
      All night long, Dog heard the clip-clop of horses hauling the wagons to market.

Translations

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Verb

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clip-clop (third-person singular simple present clip-clops, present participle clip-clopping, simple past and past participle clip-clopped)

  1. To make a clip-clop noise.
    • 1999, Mary Downing Hahn, Anna All Year Round[5]:
      At the some moment, a horse clip-clops past, hauling a wagon.
    • 2002, D J Vallone, For the Love of Freedom [6]
      One of several pairs of mounted police in flak jackets clip-clops past, patrolling the perimeter.
    • 2023 August 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: End damaging drift at Euston”, in RAIL, number 990, page 3:
      There was a single arrivals platform, nearest to King's Cross. The large arch beneath the clock gave access to Hansom carriages clip-clopping up the cobbled ramp from the main gate in Euston Road, directly onto the platform, to meet well-to-do passengers.

Usage notes

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  • Used particularly of horses.
  • Often repeated one or more times in succession to indicate multiple or continued steps.
  • Sometimes voiced as a pair of alveolar clicks. This is the only common use of alveolar clicks in English.

Translations

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