chipper

Exhibiting a lively optimism; in high spirits, cheerful.

Adjective

  1. Exhibiting a lively optimism; in high spirits, cheerful.
    • Van Halen orders garlic strewn about Lucy's bedroom. she feels a bit chipperer the next morning, so Mina heads off to help poor Harker in Budapest. - 2013, Michelle Witte, Faker's Guide to the Classics, page 66:
    • The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from...
    • "Sure, but she's not saying." Imrich kicked his feet up on the coffee table, dislodging a pile of research papers — hers, of course — onto the floor. She tried not to twitch. Laiken twitched a lot, and it was...

Origin

From English dialectal kipper (“nimble; frisky”), of obscure origin. Perhaps akin to Old Norse kjapt (“briskly; impetuously”), kippa ("to snatch; pull; jerk" > Middle English kippen (“to seize”)), kipra (“to wrinkle; draw tightly”), Norwegian kjapp (“fast; brisk”), Dutch kippen (“to seize; catch; grip”). More at kip.

Forms

chipperer chipperest

Derived

chipperly chipperness chipper up unchipper

Noun

  1. Someone who or something which chips (e.g. wood).
    • Used for chopping large blocks of chocolate into small pieces, a chocolate chipper looks like a large fork with six thin, very sharp, pointed metal fingers. To use the chipper, hold it straight up and down and press it...

    1. (in particular, US) A machine that reduces organic matter to compost; depending on size, whole tree trunks are reduced to sawdust; a woodchipper.

      • NR workers feed the cleared vegetation into a chipper. - 2025 March 5, David Stubbings, “Network News: NR wages war on Welsh vegetation encroachment”, in RAIL, number 1030, page 21, image caption:

    2. A machine that chips potatoes into pieces that are ready to be fried and made into chips.

  2. A fish and chip shop, or more generally a cheap fast food outlet, typically selling chips and other deep-fried foods.
    • 'Yes, and CCTV on the drink link and at Fabio's chipper.' - 2023, Sam Blake, The Mystery of Four:
  3. A company that manufactures potato chips/potato crisps.
    • Bichel asked chippers several thought-provoking questions about potato procurement, storage and handling. - 1974, Potato Chipper, volume 33, numbers 16-27, page 25:
    • Pet Inc.'s Laura Scudder division, a West Coast region chipper, has revamped its Dittos brand stack chips. - 1978, Joan Dye Gussow, The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology, page 151:
  4. A player who chips the ball.
  5. A golf club for making chip shots.
  6. A deep frier.
  7. An occasional tobacco user, or more generally drug user.

Origin

From chip + -er.

Forms

chippers

Synonyms

chippy greasy spoon hole-in-the-wall

Related

blue-chipper bread chipper

Verb

  1. To chirp or chirrup.
    • [a squirrel] […] eyeing me inquisitively, chippering, and shaking his tail - 1884, Clinton Hart Merriam, The Mammals of the Adirondack Region, Northeastern New York:

Origin

Compare cheep, chirp.

Forms

chippers chippering chippered