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Like flip and flick, fillip is considered a phonetic imitation of the sharp release of a curled-up finger aimed to strike something. Language history suggests that people were filliping in the 15th-century, well before they were flipping and flicking. Specifically, fillip describes a strike or gesture made by the sudden straightening of a finger curled up against the thumb—a motion commonly referred to as a flick. It didn't take long before the sensational stinging smartness of filliping was extended to figurative use. "I mark this in our old Mogul's wine; it's quite as deadening to some as filliping to others," observes Herman Melville's Dutch sailor of wine's "stimulating" effect in Moby Dick.
Synonyms
Verb
- amp (up)
- animate
- brace
- energize
- enliven
- fire
- ginger (up)
- invigorate
- jazz (up)
- juice up
- jump-start
- liven (up)
- pep (up)
- quicken
- spike
- stimulate
- vitalize
- vivify
- zip (up)
Noun
- bang
- bash
- bat
- beat
- belt
- biff
- blow
- bop
- box
- buffet
- bust
- chop
- clap
- clip
- clout
- crack
- cuff
- dab
- douse [British]
- hack
- haymaker
- hit
- hook
- knock
- larrup [dialect]
- lash
- lick
- pelt
- pick
- plump
- poke
- pound
- punch
- rap
- slam
- slap
- slug
- smack
- smash
- sock
- spank
- stinger
- stripe
- stroke
- swat
- swipe
- switch
- thud
- thump
- thwack
- wallop
- welt
- whack
- wham
- whop
- whap
Examples of fillip in a Sentence
Guy Lodge, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024
As TechCrunch notes, the surprise release of the draft rules last month whacked the market; their disappearance accordingly gave a fillip to Tencent and NetEase shares.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 23 Jan. 2024
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will bow all five movies in cinema theaters and co-produce them with independent producers, Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus+ director of fiction and entertainment, said at a presentation in Madrid on Thursday.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 18 Jan. 2024
Morris, however, can’t resist adorning them with fillips and flourishes of his own.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2023
The new styling is essentially S550 with less fillip and more sneer.
—Sam Smith, Car and Driver, 25 Aug. 2023
The move will provide a further fillip to New Delhi’s attempt to position the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, as an alternative trading center to Singapore and Dubai.
—Subhadip Sircar, Bloomberg.com, 5 June 2023
Leverage policy Companies would do well to use policies and regulations to provide a fillip to their deep tech efforts.
—François Candelon, Fortune, 2 June 2023
The streamers have been able to give the genre another, more technical fillip.
—Patrick Frater, Variety, 14 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fillip.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near fillip
Cite this Entry
“Fillip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fillip. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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