Word.ws English Dictionary

clip someone's wings

clip someone's wings verb: to restrict someone's freedom.

Verb

clip someone's wings (third-person singular simple present clips someone's wings, present participle clipping someone's wings, simple past and past participle clipped someone's wings)

  1. (idiomatic) To restrict someone's freedom.

Synonyms of clip someone's wings

Forms of clip someone's wings

third-person singular presentclips someone's wings
present participleclipping someone's wings
past participleclipped someone's wings
pastclipped someone's wings

Origin of clip someone's wings

A reference to someone clipping a bird's wings to prevent it from flying away.

Questions about clip someone's wings

What does clip someone's wings mean?
Clip someone's wings means to restrict someone's freedom.
What part of speech is clip someone's wings?
Clip someone's wings is a verb.
What is the past tense of clip someone's wings?
The past tense of clip someone's wings is clipped someone's wings.

Words near clip someone's wings in the dictionary

  1. clip joints
  2. clip point
  3. clip points
  4. clip show
  5. clip shows
  6. clip someone's wings
  7. clip strip
  8. clip strips
  9. clip the church
  10. clip the wings of
  11. clip-clop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clip someone's wings (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-clip someone's wings.ogg.

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