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Tip vs Tippy - What's the difference?

tip | tippy |

As nouns the difference between tip and tippy

is that tip is the extreme end of something, especially when pointed; e.g. the sharp end of a pencil while tippy is a dandy.

As a verb tip

is to provide with a tip; to cover the tip of.

As an adjective tippy is

fashionable, tip-top.

tip

English

Etymology 1

Circa 1225. Not recorded in Old English or Old Norse, but apparently cognate with Dutch tip, East Frisian tip, Danish tip, Swedish tipp. Perhaps cognate with Old English . Compare Albanian .

Noun

(en noun)
  • The extreme end of something, especially when pointed; e.g. the sharp end of a pencil.
  • * 1848 , (Anne Bronte), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall :
    • When he woke up, about half an hour after, he called it to him again, but Dash only looked sheepish and wagged the tip of his tail.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • A piece of metal, fabric or other material used to cover the top of something for protection, utility or decoration.
  • (music) The end of a bow of a stringed instrument that is not held.
  • A piece of stiffened lining pasted on the inside of a hat crown.
  • A thin, boarded brush made of camel's hair, used by gilders in lifting gold leaf.
  • Rubbish thrown from a quarry.
    • (Webster 1913)
    Synonyms
    *(extreme end of something) extremity

    Verb

    (tipp)
  • To provide with a tip; to cover the tip of.
  • * 1598 , William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing , Act V:
    • I thinke he thinkes vpon the sauage bull: / Tush, feare not man, wee'll tip thy hornes with gold, / And all Europa shall reioyce at thee [...].
  • * Hudibras
    • truncheon tipped with iron head
  • * Thomson
    • Tipped with jet, / Fair ermines spotless as the snows they press.

    Etymology 2

    Possibly from Scandinavian, or a special use of Etymology 1.

    Verb

    (tipp)
  • To knock over; to make fall down, to overturn.
  • To fall over.
  • To be, or come to be, in a tilted or sloping position; to become unbalanced.
  • * 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick :
    • the brief suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an instant on the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two [...].
  • (transitive, slang, dated) To drink.
  • To dump (refuse).
  • (US) To pour a libation, particularly from a forty of malt liquor.
  • * 1993 , ”:
    • I tip my 40 to your memory.
  • To deflect with one?s fingers, especially one?s fingertips
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 28 , author=Jon Smith , title=Valencia 1 - 1 Chelsea , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Lampard was replaced by Kalou but the substitute immediately gave the ball to Jonas, whose 25-yard curler was tipped wide by Cech.}}
    Derived terms
    * tip off * tip one's hand * tip one's hat * tippable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (skittles, obsolete) The knocking over of a skittle.
  • An act of tipping up or tilting.
  • (UK, Australia, New Zealand) An area or a place for dumping something, such as rubbish or refuse, as from a mine; a heap (see tipple ); a dump.
  • * 1972 May 18, Jon Tinker, Must we waste rubbish?'', '' , page 389,
    • As the tip slowly squashes under its own weight, bacteria rot away the organic matter, mainly anaerobically with the generation of methane.
  • * 2009 , Donna Kelly, 'Don't dump on Hepburn's top tip'], [http://www.hepburnadvocate.com.au/, The Hepburn Advocate, Fairfax Digital
    • When I was a kid I used to love going to the tip .
  • * 2009 , Rother District Council, Rother District Council Website
    • There are two rubbish tip s in Rother.
  • * 2009 , Beck Vass, 'Computer collectibles saved from the tip' The New Zealand Herald, Technology section, APN Holdings NZ Ltd
    • Computer collectibles saved from the tip
  • (UK, Australia, New Zealand, by extension) A recycling centre.
  • (colloquial) A very untidy place.
  • The act of deflecting with one's fingers, especially the fingertips
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=As a frenetic opening continued, Cahill - whose robust approach had already prompted Jamie Carragher to register his displeasure to Atkinson - rose above the Liverpool defence to force keeper Pepe Reina into an athletic tip over the top.}}

    Etymology 3

    Of uncertain origin; apparently cognate with (etyl) tippen, (etyl) tippen, (etyl) tippa.

    Verb

    (tipp)
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • A third rogue tips me by the elbow.

    Noun

    (tips)

    • Etymology 4

    Originally thieves' slang, of uncertain orign.

    Verb

    (tipp)
  • To give a small gratuity to, especially to an employee of someone who provides a service.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother
    • Derived terms
    * tipper * tipping

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A gratuity; a small amount of money left for a bartender, waiter, taxi driver or other servant as a token of appreciation.
  • * 1897 , Bram Stoker, Dracula :
    • A half crown tip put the deputy's knowledge at my disposal, and I learned that Mr. Bloxam [...] had left for his work at five o'clock that morning.
    Synonyms
    * cumshaw * baksheesh

    Etymology 5

    Probably from , or a combination of the two.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A piece of private or secret information, especially imparted by someone with expert knowledge about sporting odds, business performance etc.
  • A piece of advice.
    • Derived terms
    * hot tip * stock tip * tip-off * tip sheet * tipster
    Descendants
    * German: (l)

    Verb

    (tipp)
  • To give a piece of private information to; to inform (someone) of a clue, secret knowledge, etc.
    • Derived terms
    * tip off

    Etymology 6

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (AAVE) A kick or phase; one's current habits or behaviour.
  • (AAVE) A particular arena or sphere of interest; a front.

    • References

    * (English Citations of "tip")

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    tippy

    English

    Etymology 1

    1790, .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete, colloquial, or, slang) Fashionable, tip-top.
  • * 1806 , Kitty Crotchet, “The Bootees—A New Song”, in The Port Folio , v 2, Philadelphia: John Watts, p 76:
    • 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 .
  • In the height of fashion, excellent, cool.
  • * 1802 , “Ladies Literature”, in New England Quarterly Magazine , v 2, Boston, p 225:
    • I under?tand, however, that there is a di?tinction between the?e names in the city and St. James's; in the latter place you may find fa?hion in the characters of the ton'', the ''ta?te'', the ''etiquette'', &c. in the city they are all the ''tippy'' , the ''thing'', the ''?ort'', &c. and pretty ''things'' they are, Heaven knowns! [sic]—with a ''?ort'' of a cane, which being twelve inches long, one blow of an Iri?hman's ?hillalagh would drive ''twelve yards away.
  • * 1806 , The Port Folio , v 2, Philadelphia: John Watts, p 143:
    • 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.
  • * 1808 , Thomas Morton, “A Cure for the Heart Ache”, in The British Theatre; or, A Collection of Plays , London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, p 10:
    • 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.
  • * 1845 , “The Frog and the Fox”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist , London: Henry Colburn, p 371:
    • As neither of them said “No,” he opened the will, and found that the old lady had left all the accumulated scrapings of a long life of industry to her son William, to aid his “great abilities” in promoting the honour of the family. [. . .] “That'll do, Smugs,” said Bill, and then turning to his brothers, he observed. “Just the tippy , for I was cleaned out. [. . .]”
  • (colloquial, or, slang) Clever, neat, smart.
  • * 1863 [1910], Early Letters of Marcus Dods, D.D. , p 344:
    • 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.
  • * 1886 , T.C. Owen, The Tea Planter's Manual , Colombo: A.M. & J. Ferguson, pp 49–50:
    • 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.

    Noun

    (tippies)
  • (obsolete, colloquial, or, slang) A dandy.
  • * 1798 , “Whim?ical Peculiarities of Expre??ion”, in The Monthly Magazine and British Register , v 6, London: R. Phillips, p 173:
    • Is his dre?s, as we may pre?ume it will be, elegant; exhibiting no articles of apparel but ?uch as are “All the rage?” he is “Quite the tippy .”''

    Derived terms

    * tippy Bob, tippy-Bob

    Etymology 2

    1886, .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (Canada, US) Tending to tip or tilt over; unstable.

    • Quotations

    (English Citations of "tippy")