chippy
Ill-tempered, disagreeable.
Adjective
- Ill-tempered, disagreeable.
- To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, / In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock, / Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, / From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block! - 1885, W. S....
- There was something so irksome about Barry Groom that he had a fascination: you longed for him to annoy you again. He was incredibly chippy, was that the thing?—all his longings came out as a kind of disdain for what he...
- Involving violence or unfair play.
- 2007, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, cisport.ca, The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns and University of Saskatchewan Huskies battled to a 1-1 draw in a chippy Canada West men’s soccer affair that saw the teams...
- Tending to form chips when cut, rather than larger, more usable pieces of wood.
- As dry as a chip of wood.
- Feeling sick from drinking alcohol; hungover.
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kippōną Proto-West Germanic *kippōn Old English *ċippiander. Old English ċipp Middle English chippe English chip English -y English chippy From chip + -y.
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Noun
- A carpenter.
- Then, when ah wis apprenticed as a chippy wi a Gorgie builder, ah goes along tae Telford College tae dae ma national certificate modules in joinery. - 1993, Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, Times Film School, page 36:
- A prostitute or promiscuous woman.
- I manage to pick up a living in spite of the damn chippies. I don't see why the hell they don't go into the business regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free. - a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan...
- Don't worry chippy, nobodys gonna hurtya. Maybe fuckya a little[…] - 1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 52:
- $80 for a chippy? I can get a goddamn horse for $50! - 1971, Robert Altman, Brian McKay, 00:17:46 from the start, in McCabe & Mrs. Miller:
- A fish-and-chip shop.
- Huge queues form outside the Chippy, often stretching back to the Coop and beyond. - 2008, Patrick Naughton, chapter I, in Whistle Wood, Land of the Fathers, →ISBN, page 33:
- Albert was flabbergasted. Yer really buyin′ a chippy?” Tom smiled whilst nodding his head. “That′s me plan.” - 2009, John Wise, chapter 12, in Sweet Dreams, →ISBN, page 308:
Synonyms: chipper
- The youngest member of a team or group, normally someone whose voice has not yet deepened, talking like a chipmunk.
- A potato chip.
- why fish? for food so we can have it in our chippies - 2001 February 17, Ben Scott, “fish”, in free.uk.internet.isp.blueyonder.poor-service (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Apr 2026:
- A chiptune.
- A chipping sparrow.
- In due time a nest-full of little chippies appear to be nourished with insectiverous^([sic]) food from a parental beak until fledged and able to look after themselves. - 1902, Henry Harrison Metcalf, John Norris...
- Surely no young chippy was ever so stout and so emphatic as this bird. The funny part of it all is that the starling appears to make the chippies do whatever it pleases. - 1908, Alice Lounsberry, chapter I, in The...
- How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it spend the winter? - 1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 88:
- An occasional drug habit, less than addiction.
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Verb
- To take drugs (especially heroin) on an occasional basis, rather than as an addict.
- I chippy around but haven't been hooked in a year now. - 1952 March 5, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published...
- The heroin user in the United States typically "chippies" for some time before becoming a regular user. - 1974, Eric Josephson, Eleanor Elizabeth Carroll, Columbia University. School of Public Health and Administrative...
- For the most part, the players who are "chippying" with heroin think that they have their heroin use under control […] - 2009, Erich Goode, Marijuana, page 86: