ˈtip-ˈtop, n., a., adv. colloq.
Also tiptop.
[f. tip n.1 + top, or reduplicated form of the latter.]
A. n.
1. The very top; the highest point or part; the extreme summit.
| 1702 [see 2]. 1759 Compl. Letter-writer (ed. 6) 219 Upon the tip top of the monument. 1826 S. Thomas in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 186 The tip-top of the plant. 1857 Dickens Let. 15 Apr., On the tip-top of Gad's Hill, between this and Rochester,..I have a pretty little old-fashioned house. a 1887 in Frith Autobiog. II. ii. 37 You should paint him sitting on the tip-top of the mast of a big ship. |
2. fig. a. Highest pitch or degree; extreme height; acme.
| 1702 S. Parker tr. Cicero's De Finibus iv. 228 When a Wise Man is at the Tip-top of all Felicity, can he wish Things were better with him? 1747 Wesley Wks. (1872) XII. 83 The tip-top of all inconsistencies. 1798 O'Keeffe Wild Oats iii. i, All on the tip-top of expectation. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. x. 171, I cry aloud to all and sundry..at the very tiptop of my voice. |
b. sing. and pl. People of the highest quality or rank (collectively); ‘grandees’, ‘swells’. ?
Obs.| 1753 School of Man 125 To figure among high company..this his marriage has done at once, and among the Tip Top. 1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl (1813) III. 278 The spark was kin to some of the tip-tops of his own kindred. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis lx, We go here to the best houses, the tiptops, I tell you. |
3. Angling. A line guide on a fishing-rod.
N. Amer.| 1961 Washington Post 5 Feb. c 6/6 A tiptop for flyrod and casting rod. 1971 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 5 Sept. 5/3 Many cases of broken lines can be traced to cracks or nicks on a fishing rod's guides or tiptop. |
B. adj. Situated at the very top; very highest; almost always
fig. of the highest quality or excellence; first-rate, prime, superlatively good; of persons, belonging to the highest rank or class.
| 1722 Byrom Epil. Hurlothrumbo Poems 1773 I. 215 Proud of your Smiles, he's mounted many a Story Above the tip-top Pinnacle of Glory. 1732 Tricks of Town 8, I have known a tip-top Physician sent for by an Express [etc.]. 1755 Smollett Quix. i. ii. iv. (1803) I. 93 He made carols for Christmas eve, and plays for the Lord's day;..and every body said, they were tip-top. 1825 Sporting Mag. XVI. 272 One hundred guineas, a tip-top price in those days. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. ii, Quite select, and frequented by the tip-top nobility. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown ii. v, He is in tip-top training. 1880 Disraeli Endym. xxi, Our friend Ferrars seems in tiptop company. |
C. adv. In the highest degree, superlatively, extremely well.
| 1888 Stockton Dusantes iii. 120 ‘That suits us tip-top, ma'am’, said the coxswain. |
D. Comb.:
tip-top-castle, name of some boys' game;
tip-top-gallant a. (
nonce-wd.) [after
top-gallant], of superlatively high rank or quality.
| 1834 Keightley Tales, etc. i. 12 He was a capital player at *tip-top-castle. |
| 1730 Swift Vind. Ld. Carteret Wks. 1841 II. 117/1, I do not find how his excellency can be justly censured for favouring none but..*tiptopgallantmen. |
Hence
ˌtip-ˈtopmost a. colloq., (
a) highest; (
b) best;
ˌtipˈtopness;
tip-ˈtopper, a ‘tip-top’ person or thing; in
quot. 1822, applied to a glass filled to the very top, a bumper;
tip-ˈtopping [
topping ppl. a.],
tipˈtoppish (hence
tipˈtoppishness),
tipˈtopsome adjs. = B.
| 1937 G. Frankau More of Us ii. 26 Clashed home the gates. Slow to *tip-topmost storey Groaned lift. 1960 Guardian 22 Apr. 8/5 All their tip-topmost British merchandise. |
| 1891 Boston Daily Globe 24 Mar. 5/2 The very topmost *tiptopness of Harvard thought. |
| 1822 Blackw. Mag. XI. 89 So I think it but proper to fill a *tip-topper Of Sherry to drink to the King. 1829 P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 239 Some tip-toppers on the Corinthian list were witnessed getting over the ground as ‘gaily as larks’. 1837 Thackeray Ravenswing i, One of the first swells on town ma'am—a regular tip-topper. 1882 A. Edwardes Ballroom Repent. I. 243 Give me your operatic tip-toppers—Patti and Trebelli, or nothing. |
| 1827 S. P. in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 54 This is mostly with the *tip-topping part [of people]. |
| 1855 W. K. Kelly tr. Cervantes' Exemp. Novels 475 All she had told him of the merits, worth, beauty, modesty, and *tiptoppishness..of her mistress, he quite believed. |
| 1819 Blackw. Mag. V. 717 In the *tiptopsomest degree. |