▪ I. chippy, a.
(ˈtʃɪpɪ)
[f. chip n.1 and v.1 + -y1.]
1. Of, or composed of, chips.
| 1729 Savage Wanderer i. (R.) Here my chill'd veins are warm'd by chippy fires. |
2. Full of chaps; chapped.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxiv. (1856) 301 Eyes, nose, and mouth chippy with lamp-black and undue evaporation. |
3. a. Resembling a chip; as dry as a chip.
| 1866 Sat. Rev. 31 Mar. 375 A few..have passed a dry, chippy, verseless youth. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 386 Chippy and parched. |
b. Vulgarly applied to the physical sensations experienced after alcoholic dissipation. Also gen. ‘off colour’, seedy, unwell.
| 1877 Belgravia XXXII. 235 After too copious libations of the above [sc. brandy and soda] a man is apt to feel ‘chippy’ next morning. 1884 H. Smart From Post to Finish xxi, A dozen cigars a day make one feel dreadfully ‘chippy’, in the morning. 1899 Conan Doyle Duet 74 ‘I feel a little chippy to-day.’ ‘That's the worst of these cheap champagnes.’ 1937 E. Garnett Family from One End St. iv. 81 You looks a bit chippy. Don't you be sick here. |
4. colloq. a. Given to chipping, ready to chip. Also fig., cross, irritable.
| c 1885 F. M. Fetherston Adv. Yorks. Farmer 84 You look chippy and down in the mouth. 1888 ‘Poor Nellie’ 271 She won't then be quite so chippy on her chipping-block. 1898 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., The master is quite chippy to-day; you can hardly speak to him but he snaps at you. 1941 Penguin New Writing IV. 37 ‘Don't bother. Here are your gloves.’ ‘No need to be chippy, old fellow.’ |
b. Lively, brisk. Cf. chipper a.
| 1923 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Aug. 558/3 Mr. Nicholson writes sometimes in the chippy, voluble monologue of ‘If Winter Comes’. 1950 C. Fry Venus Observed 13 You call me old But I am still A chippy young chap. |
▪ II. chippy, n.
(ˈtʃɪpɪ)
[f. chip n.1 and v.1]
1. U.S. (Also chippy bird, chippy sparrow.) = chipping-bird (chipping ppl. a. 2).
| 1864 Webster, Chipping-bird..also chippy. 1898 S. Hale Lett. (1919) 338, I must tell you of our little chippy sparrows that had their nest in the trellis. 1900 Congress. Rec. 30 Apr. 4872/2 The ground chippy darted under the fences. 1913 G. S. Porter Laddie iii. 94 In the hollow of a rotten rail a little chippy bird always built a hair nest. |
2. (Also chippie.) A young woman (usu. derogatory); a promiscuous or delinquent girl or young woman; a prostitute. Also attrib. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1886 in Amer. Speech (1950) XXV. 31/2 This class of females are known by the gang as ‘Chippies’, and most of them come from the slums. 1929 T. Wolfe Look Homeward (1930) xii. 254 Your place is getting the reputation of a regular chippyhouse. Ibid. xix. 279 She's no better than a regular little chippie. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 June 438/1 Opal and other ‘chippies’ at Moll's ‘sporting-house’. 1955 ‘W. Mole’ Hammersmith Maggot ii. 26 He was no timidly frenzied lover of some exorbitant chippy. |
3. slang. = chip n.1 6 c. (Also see quots.)
| 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Carry On 26 A carpenter's mate [is] a ‘woodspoiler’ or ‘chippy chap’. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 54 A chippy chap, a man of carpenter's rating. (Navy). Ibid. 167 Nicknames..Chippy: for a man named Carpenter. 1929 Papers Michigan Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 284/1 Chippies, carpenters in the British naval air-service. 1930 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 680 Try & find me a chippy to run shelves..the full depth and height of the chimney-breast. 1943 [see chip n.1 6 c]. 1960 A. Wesker I'm Talking about Jerusalem 1 I'll work as a chippy on the Colonel's farm. |
4. (Also chippie.) = chip-shop, chip n.1 9. local colloq.
| 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1036/1 Chippy, a fish-and-chips shop: Merseyside. 1964 New Society 20 Feb. 11/1 An acceptable alternative to the pub: the chippy on the turf—a chip shop in the gang's area. 1965 Listener 3 June 827/1 In the industrial towns the housewife..found that time, labour, and money were saved by the chippie. |