lipping

Plurallippings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of lip.

   The putt died at the hole, lipping the rim before spinning out.

   The rising tide kept lipping the seawall through the night.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final p, as short verbs ending in a single vowel and consonant do. It carries the verb's whole range, from touching with the lips to water washing against a wall or rising to a brim. As a gerund it names the action itself (the lipping of the tide). Keep it apart from the joiner's edging strip, a true noun with its own plural, lippings.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A strip of material, often solid wood, applied to the edge of a board or panel to protect and finish it.

   The joiner finished the desk with a band of walnut lipping to disguise the chipboard edge.

   Without lipping, the exposed plywood edges would chip and soak up moisture.

   Similaredging, banding, trim

   Note

   A joiner's word that works two ways: as a mass noun for the material (a run of walnut lipping) and as a count noun for each strip fixed in place (the lippings). It hides the core of plywood or particleboard and gives an edge that takes a finish. Peter Brett's Carpentry and Joinery for Building Craft Students 2 (1981) warns that no metal fixings must be used when fixing the lippings.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2