Gipping

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Cutting open and cleaning fish, especially herring, by removing the entrails ; defrauding or tricking someone out of money or something they are owed
2. Removing the guts from a fish, most often a herring, before it is cured ; swindling a person through deception or unfair dealing
3. Slitting a fish to take out its innards for preserving ; cheating another person by dishonest means so as to gain an advantage

Etymology: "Gipping" is the present participle and gerund of "gip," a verb meaning to cut or gut fish, and the form is simply that verb's -ing ending in use. The verb is a shortened or related form of "gibbing" in the same sense, and "gip" itself belongs to a family of English fishing terms in which a fish is cleaned by slitting or removing its entrails. Because "gipping" is only an inflected form, its history is that of "gip" rather than a separate word. The root meaning is practical rather than figurative: the word describes a specific act performed at the fishing boat, not a general idea of cutting, which keeps its sense narrow and concrete.