clip the church

verb

To hold hands in an outward-facing ring around a church, an ancient English custom traditionally observed by local communities on Easter Monday, Shrove Tuesday, or the church's saint's day.

OriginOld English clyppan →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbclip the church (third-person singular simple present clips the church, present participle clipping the church, simple past and past participle clipped the church)

present singular third person clips the church · participle present clipping the church · participle past clipped the church · past clipped the church

  1. UKTo hold hands in an outward-facing ring around a church, an ancient English custom traditionally observed by local communities on Easter Monday, Shrove Tuesday, or the church's saint's day.

    In its revived form at Edgmond it constitutes part of the annual “feast” of the parish schools. The charity children clipped the church in Birmingham.

    2015, Felicity Trotman, A Year in the Life of Victorian Britain

Origin

  1. Old Englishclyppan“to hug, to clasp”
  2. Englishclip the church

From Old English clyppan (“to hug, to clasp”).

More words from Old English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

clip the church. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clip%20the%20church

MLA

“clip the church.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clip%20the%20church. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “clip the church,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clip%20the%20church.

Source: clip the church on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.