flipper n also fippar, fipper, phripper OED ~ sb² 1 (1822) for sense 1; DC flipper dinner or supper Nfld (1933, 1958) for comb in sense 2.
   1 The fore-limb of a seal, used to propel the animal in the water or on the ice; esp as prepared for eating.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 55 [The skinbag] had been filled with phrippers, pieces of flesh, and rands of seals' fur. [1822] 1866 WILSON 341 Each man had a nunny-bag, which is a kind of knapsack, made of seal-skin, with the two fore-fippers passing over the shoulders, and tied across the breast with a piece of cod-line. 1846 TOCQUE 212 [Penguin's] wings were short, resembling the fippars of the seal, and its feet broad and webbed. 1861 DE BOILIEU 133 Finding himself disturbed and the means of retreat cut off, he stands as it were on his head, and, using the fore-fins or phrippers as a motive power, whirls himself round at an inconceivable speed. 1891 PACKARD 81 Seal's flippers we also found not to be distasteful, though never to be regarded as a delicacy. 1916 MURPHY 24 [He] used seal, covered with herb sauce, he was very fond of seal, or 'flippers,' and we pray that the coming voyage may be prosperous, and that our wishes may be gratified for a 'good square feed of flippers.' [1926] 1946 PRATT 242 "The Witches' Brew": Five sea-lion cubs were then thrown in, / Shot by the Cretan's javelin / In a wild fight off Uruguay; / With flippers fresh from the Azores, / Fijian kidneys by the scores... 1957 Daily News 16 Oct, p. 4 The men's earnings were supplemented by the sale of 'flippers,' the seals' front paws, which in Newfoundland are a gourmet's delight. T 84-64 It's like his fippers; his scutters is like his fippers. He uses 'em for scullin'! C 67-12 Flippers are classed as fish, not meat [and were exempted from the Roman Catholic prohibition of meat during Lent which coincided with the seal-hunt). 1969 HORWOOD 95-6 Canadians (and other foreigners) often make the mistake of supposing that this famous Newfoundland delicacy consists of the animals' paws. Not at all. The paws are called pads, and are usually discarded. The flipper is the front shoulder, corresponding to a shoulder of lamb or a shoulder of pork, except that it is much tastier than either. It is heavy with rich, lean meat, the colour of red mahogany, so tender that you can cut it with a fork, and of a hearty, gamy flavour like that of wild duck. 1981 Evening Telegram 27 Mar, p. 3 Some of the sealers ... said most people buy a dozen or a half-dozen flippers.
   2 In designations of container for the storage of flippers and in various dishes prepared from the meat: ~ barrel, ~ pie, ~ stew, etc.
   C 71-119 [He often referred] to a group of ladies at a sale as being 'like hungry dogs around a flipper barrel.' 1955 DOYLE (ed) 11 "A Noble Fleet of Sealers": Tho' Newfoundland is changing fast / Some things we must not lose, / May we always have our Flipper pie, / And Codfish for our brewis. [1894-1929] 1960 BURKE (ed White) 49 "Mrs Mullowney": For her friends had no fault [finding] / At this famous fipper stew. 1933 GREENE 49 Endless are the stories of the Wooden Walls ... once heard in the days gone-by at 'F'ipper Suppers' on board the early arrivals.

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