Tippy vs Trippy - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between tippy and trippy

is that tippy is (obsolete|colloquial|or|slang) fashionable, tip-top or tippy can be (canada|us) tending to tip or tilt over; unstable while trippy is (informal) strange, similar to the effects of a hallucinogen,.

As a noun tippy

is (obsolete|colloquial|or|slang) a dandy.

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")

trippy

English

Adjective

(er)

(informal) Strange, similar to the effects of a hallucinogen,

* , Something Happened To Me Yesterday :

Someone says there's something more to pay

for sins that you committed yesterday;

it's really rather drippy

but something oh so trippy .

Something happened to me yesterday.

Synonyms

* psychedelic