clipper
n. countablen. a tool used for cutting or trimming things, like hair or fingernails. It can also refer to a very fast sailing ship from the past.
n. an instrument or device used for cutting, shearing, or trimming. Also refers to a fast sailing vessel with multiple masts and a sharp bow, common in the 19th century.
He used a pair of nail clippers before the meeting.
The barber reached for his electric clipper to trim the hair around the customer's ears.
While modern cargo ships rely on massive engines, the 19th-century clipper was designed for speed, carrying tea and spices across the oceans in record time.
From Middle English clipper, equivalent to clip (“cut, shorten”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). The type of sailing ship is probably also from clip, in the sense of “move or run rapidly”. Perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch klepper (“swift horse”), from kleppen (“to clap”), which is onomatopoeic.
Often used in the plural form 'clippers' when referring to the tool for hair or nails.