Tippy

//ˈtɪpi// adj, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Fashionable, tip-top. colloquial, obsolete, slang

    "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."

  2. 2
    Tending to tip or tilt over; unstable. Canada, US
  3. 3
    Clever, neat, smart. colloquial, slang

    "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."

  4. 4
    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 tea, by making it more tippy, but unless fancy teas are being made will not pay for the time and trouble incurred."

Adjective
  1. 1
    (used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    A dandy. colloquial, obsolete, slang

    "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.”"

  2. 2
    Something at the height of fashion, excellent, cool. absolute, colloquial, obsolete, slang

    "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. in the city they are all the tippy, the thing, the ſort, &c. and pretty things they are, Heaven knowns! [sic]—with a ſort of a cane, which being twelve inches long, one blow of an Iriſhman's ſhillalagh would drive twelve yards away."

Etymology

Etymology 1

1790, tip (“apex”) + -y (diminutive). Sense of “clever” may be influenced by tip (“inside information”).

Etymology 2

1790, tip (“apex”) + -y (diminutive). Sense of “clever” may be influenced by tip (“inside information”).

Etymology 3

1886, tip (“knock over”) + -y.

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