slang. [Cf. Da. kippe mean hut, low alehouse; horekippe brothel.]
† 1. A house of ill-fame, a brothel. Obs.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xx. My business was to attend him at auctions … to take the left hand in his chariot when not filled by another, and to assist at tattering a kip, as the phrase was, when we had a mind for a frolic. [S. Baldwin Note Tattering a kip: we have never heard this expression in England, but are told that it is frequent among the young men in Ireland. It signifies, beating up the quarters of women of ill fame.
2. A common lodging-house; also a lodging or bed in such a house; hence, a bed in general.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL. 501/1. So I went home, turned into kip (bed).
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sept., 4/1. The next alternative is the common lodging-house, or ‘kip,’ which, for the moderate sum of fourpence, supplies the applicant with a bed [etc.].
1892. M. Williams, Round London (1893), 38. The sort of life that was led in ‘kips,’ or ‘doss-houses.’
