dial. and U.S. [Prob. partly a metathesis of chirrup; but also independently imitative of the sound indicated; the form being diminutive-frequentative, like twitter, chatter, totter, etc.]
1. intr. Of birds: To twitter, chirp; (of persons, or of streams) to babble, chatter.
18[?]. Mary Stone, in Schaff & Gilman, Libr. Relig. Poetry (1885), 55. On my pine-tree bough The Chipperings are hushed.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Chipper, to chirp … a metathesis of that word or rather of chirrup.
1861. Mrs. Stowe, Pearl Orr’s Isl. (ed. 3), 22. They were always chippering and chattering to each other, like a pair of antiquated house-sparrows.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 360. The sparkling stream that chippered among the ferns.
2. trans. To make ‘chipper’ or lively, to cheer up. U.S. [f. CHIPPER a.]
1873. Mrs. Whitney, Other Girls, xviii. (1876), 235. Setting to work to ‘chipper’ her mother up.
