Meaning & Analysis
The literal action involves trimming a bird's flight feathers to prevent it from flying away. This act renders the bird flightless and thus easier to control or contain.
Insights
Restricting Freedom and Power
The most common metaphorical meaning is to restrict an individual's freedom, power, or influence. It signifies the act of imposing limits on someone who is perceived as too powerful, ambitious, or independent.
Thwarting Ambition
The proverb can describe the act of thwarting someone's ambitions or curbing their potential for success. By 'clipping their wings,' one actively prevents them from achieving their goals or 'soaring' to new heights.
Imposing Control
The phrase implies establishing dominance or control over another. By removing the means of escape or independent action, the clipper forces the subject into a state of submission or tameness.
Enforcing Humility
It can be used to mean bringing an arrogant, overconfident, or 'high-flying' person back down to earth. This act serves as a humbling measure, intended to reduce their pride or perceived superiority.
Political and Monarchical Control
The proverb has deep roots in political discourse, famously used by authors like Dryden to advocate for limiting the power of absolute monarchs. It serves as a potent metaphor for constitutional checks and balances designed to prevent tyranny.
Mythological Resonance
The phrase resonates with the myth of Icarus, whose ambition led to his downfall. While Icarus's wings failed due to his own hubris, 'clipping wings' represents an external force preemptively thwarting such ambition, whether for benevolent protection or malicious control.
Psychology of Confinement
Psychologically, the expression captures the feeling of being stifled or held back by external constraints, whether from oppressive authority, societal norms, or personal relationships. It speaks to the universal human desire for autonomy and the frustration of having one's potential curtailed.
Economic Application
As seen in a 1662 quotation, the metaphor can be extended to economics, where 'clipping the wings of riches' means hoarding wealth and preventing it from circulating or growing, contrasting with letting it 'fly' through spending or investment.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The core of the proverb is a powerful metaphor where 'wings' symbolize freedom, ambition, and potential, while 'clipping' represents the act of restriction or limitation.
Imagery
The phrase evokes a strong visual image of a bird being physically disabled, making the abstract concepts of restriction and lost potential feel concrete and visceral.
Verb Choice
The verb 'clip' is a sharp, incisive term that suggests a quick, decisive, and often permanent action, enhancing the sense of finality in the restriction being imposed.
Transcription
Quotations
This policy shall clip his golden wings.
His wings are clipped.
That is when his wings are cut, he is tame indeed.
To clip his wings.
The penurious Father, clips the Wings of his Riches; but the Prodigal Son opens the Cage, and sets them going.
To cut ones tallons, viz. to pare ones nails, to clip ones wings.
*Cut him short.
To clip the wings Of their high-flying arbitrary kings.
Cross References
- See OTTO, no. 1422
- ST., no. 576.
- N12 To pare one's (the devil's) nails.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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