/ˈtɪpi/
Origin1790, tip (“apex”) + -y (diminutive). Sense of “clever” may be influenced by tip (“inside information”).
- colloquial, obsolete, slangFashionable, tip-top.
“Of all the gay beaux, / That sport their smart cloathes, / There's none that my fancy can please, / With their Spencers or Crops, / Or woolly Foretops, / Like Bob with his Tippy Bootees.”
- colloquial, slangClever, neat, smart.
“She read Renan's Vie de Jésus, and I am now going to lend her the antidote—a tippy little bit of criticism by Pressensé.”
- Of tea, having a large amount of tips, or leaf buds.
“Before rolling some planters are in the habit of sifting the leaf through a No. 4 sieve, and manufacturing the small leaf and tips that fall through separately. This will add to the appearance of the ”
- Canada, USTending to tip or tilt over; unstable.
- colloquial, obsolete, slangA dandy.
“Is his dreſs, as we may preſume it will be, elegant; exhibiting no articles of apparel but ſuch as are “All the rage?” he is “Quite the tippy.””
- absolute, colloquial, obsolete, slangSomething at the height of fashion, excellent, cool.
“I underſtand, however, that there is a diſtinction between theſe names in the city and St. James's; in the latter place you may find faſhion in the characters of the ton, the taſte, the etiquette, &c.”
“The wig's the thing, the wig, the wig, / Be of the ton a natty sprig, / The thing, the tippy and the twig, / Nor heed who are the truly wise, / For after all, in vulgar eyes, / The wisdom's in the wig”
“Rent! you boor!—That, for Sir Hubert!—[Snapping his Fingers.] Ah! Nabob's servants be the tippy—Every thing be done by them so genteely.”
Formstippier(comparative) · tippiest(superlative) · tippies(plural)