• (RP, GA) IPA: /ˈfɪlɪp/

fillip (plural fillips)

1. (archaic) The action of hold#Verb|holding the tip#Noun|tip of a finger#Noun|finger against the thumb#Noun|thumb and then release#Verb|releasing it with a snap#Noun|snap; a flick#Noun|flick.
2. A smart#Adjective|smart strike#Noun|strike or tap#Noun|tap made using this action, or (by extension) by other means.
3. (by extension) Something unimportant, a trifle; also, the brief#Adjective|brief time#Noun|time it take#Verb|takes to flick#Verb|flick one's finger#Noun|finger (see noun sense 1); a jiffy.
   • 1821, Lord Byron, “Sardanapalus”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], OCLC 317087118 ↗, Act I, scene ii, page 20 ↗:

     Eat, drink and love; the rest's not worth a fillip.

4. (by extension) Something that excites or stimulates.

   This measure gave a fillip to the housing market.

   The athlete’s victory provided a much-needed fillip for national pride.

   • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Club of Queer Fellows”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 2 (Buckthorne and His Friends), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], OCLC 864083 ↗, page 22 ↗:

     He sat at the head of the table with his hat on, and an eye beaming even more luminously than his nose. He had a quiz and a fillip for every one, and a good thing on every occasion.

• French: chiquenaude, pichenette
• German: Schnalzen
• Italian: schiocco, schioccare, schioccare le dito, scrocchio
• Portuguese: peteleco, piparote
• Russian: щелчо́к
• Spanish: papirote

fillip (fillips, present participle filliping; past and past participle filliped)

1. (transitive) To strike#Verb|strike, project#Verb|project, or propel with a fillip (that is, a finger#Noun|finger release#Verb|released quickly after being press#Verb|pressed against the thumb#Noun|thumb); to flick#Verb|flick.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: Imprinted by G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, OCLC 951696502 ↗, [Act IV, scene v] ↗:

     Mene[laus]. An odde man Lady, euery man is odde. / Creſ[ſida]. No Paris is not, for you know tis true, / That you are odde and he is euen with you. / Mene. You fillip me a'th head.

   • 1627, [Francis Bacon], “II. Century. [Experiments in Consort Touching Musicke.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: Published after the authors death, by VVilliam Rawley; printed by I[ohn] H[aviland and Augustine Mathewes] for William Lee […], OCLC 1044242069 ↗; Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: Published […] by VVilliam Rawley. Printed by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], 1631, OCLC 1044372886 ↗, paragraph 102, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t8v991c13;view=1up;seq=31 page 13]:

     The Sounds that produce Tones, are euer from ſuch Bodies, as are in their Parts and Pores Equall; As well as the Sounds themſelues are Equall; And ſuch as are the Percuſſions of Metall, as in Bels; Of Glaſſe, as in the Fillipping of a Drinking Glaſſe; [...]

2. (transitive, by extension) To project quickly; to snap#Verb|snap.
3. (transitive, by extension) To strike or tap#Verb|tap smartly.
   • 1876, Thomas Hardy, “The Lodge, continued—The Copse behind”, in The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 912954463 ↗, page 148 ↗:

     The boughs were so tangled that in following the obstructed track it became necessary to screen his face with his hands to escape the risk of having his eyes filliped out by the twigs that impeded his progress.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To drive#Verb|drive as if by a fillip (noun sense 1); to excite, stimulate, whet.

   The spicy aroma filliped my appetite.

   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “Midnight, Forecastle”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299 ↗, page 190 ↗:

     Grand snoozing to-night, maty; fat night for that. I mark this in our old Mogul's wine; it’s quite as deadening to some as filliping to others.

5. (ambitransitive) To make a fillip (noun sense 1) (with the fingers).

• flip (possibly)

• Italian: schioccare
• Russian: щёлкнуть