[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That chirps.
1611. Cotgr., Gazouillard, singing, chirping, or warbling, as a bird.
1714. Gay, Trivia, I. 148. Chirping Sparrows.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Odes (1765), 182. Now chirping crickets raise their tinkling voice.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ii. (1876), 26. Each time the horse put its foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was produced.
2. Merry, hilarious, lively. (Cf. CHIRPY.)
1616. B. Jonson, Masque Christmas. [He] has been in his days a chirping boy, and a kill-pot.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Chirping-merry, very pleasant over a Glass of good Liquor.
1725. New Cant. Dict.
1840. Thackeray, Catherine, viii. Drink … made him chirping and merry.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xli. A chirping, healthy … fellow.
Hence Chirpingly adv.
1650. A. B., Mutat. Polemo, 15. To be chirpingly drunk, and sing away sorrow.
3. Producing merriment, cheering.
[The original notion here is not quite clear: perhaps the word was properly a vbl. sb. used attrib., ‘chirping-cup’ being = cup (productive) of chirping. In later use the phrase is merely traditional, without analysis.]
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., 5 July § 5 (1650), 162. The Fannian Law … allows a chirping cup to satiat, not to surfet.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 412. To take a chirping cup: Bibere ad hilaritatem.
1710. W. King, Love, X. 1480. Bacchus with his chirping cup.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 358. Sir Balaam … takes his chirping pint and cracks his jokes.
a. 1734. North, Lives, III. 224. Sir Dudley North loved a chirping glass in an evening.
1801. Month. Mag., XII. 224. That stimulation, which succeeds to a seasoned dinner and a chirping pint.
