sb., a., adv. colloq. [f. TIP sb.1 + TOP, or reduplicated form of the latter.]
A. sb. 1. The very top; the highest point or part; the extreme summit.
1702. [see 2].
1759. Compl. Letter-writer (ed. 6), 219. Upon the tip top of the monument.
1826. S. Thomas, in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 186. The tip-top of the plant.
1857. Dickens, Lett., 15 April. On the tip-top of Gad’s Hill, between this and Rochester,… I have a pretty little old-fashioned house.
a. 1887. in Frith, Autobiog., II. ii. 37. You should paint him sitting on the tip-top of the mast of a big ship.
2. fig. a. Highest pitch or degree; extreme height; acme.
1702. S. Parker, trans. Cicero’s De Finibus, IV. 228. When a Wise Man is at the Tip-top of all Felicity, can he wish Things were better with him?
1747. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XII. 83. The tip-top of all inconsistencies.
1798. O’Keeffe, Wild Oats, III. i. All on the tip-top of expectation.
1837. Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), I. x. 171. I cry aloud to all and sundry … at the very tiptop of my voice.
b. sing. and pl. People of the highest quality or rank (collectively); ‘grandees,’ ‘swells.’ ? Obs.
1753. School of Man, 125. To figure among high company, was what he had long been aiming at; this his Marriage has done at once, and among the Tip-top.
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), III. 278. The spark was kin to some of the tip-tops of his own kindred.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, lx. we go here to the best houses, the tiptops, I tell you.
B. adj. Situated at the very top: very highest; almost always fig. of the highest quality or excellence; first-rate, prime, superlatively good; of persons, belonging to the highest rank or class.
1722. Byron, Epil. Hurlothrumbo, Poems 1773, I. 215. Proud of your Smiles, he’s mounted many a Story Above the tip-top Pinnacle of Glory.
1732. Tricks of Town, 8. I have known a tip-top Physician sent for by an Express, and several Sets of Horses laid on the Road for him, to go with the utmost Expedition to visit a Lap-Dog.
1755. Smollett, Quix., I. II. iv. (1803), I. 93. He made carols for Christmas eve, and plays for the Lord’s day;… and every body said, they were tip-top.
1825. Sporting Mag., XVI. 272. One hundred guineas, a tip-top price in those days.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk., ii. Quite select, and frequented by the tip-top nobility.
1852. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. v. He is in tip-top training.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xxi. Our friend Ferrars seems in tiptop company.
C. adv. In the highest degree, superlatively, extremely well.
1888. Stockton, Dusantes, III. 120. ‘That suits us tip-top, ma’am,’ said the coxswain.
D. Comb.: tip-top-castle, name of some boys’ game; tip-top-gallant a. (nonce-wd.) [after top-gallant], of superlatively high rank or quality.
1834. Keightley, Tales, etc. i. 12. He was a capital player at *tip-top-castle.
1730. Swift, Vind. Ld. Carteret, Wks. 1841, II. 117/1. I do not find how his excellency can be justly censured for favouring none but … *tiptopgallantmen.
Hence Tiptopness; Tip-topper, a ‘tip-top’ person or thing; in quot. 1822, applied to a glass filled to the very top, a bumper; Tip-topping [TOPPING ppl. a.], Tiptoppish (hence tiptoppishness), Tiptopsome adjs. = B.
1891. Boston Daily Globe, 24 March, 5/2. The very topmost *tiptopness of Harvard thought.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XI. 89. So I think it but proper to fill a *tip-topper Of Sherry to drink to the King.
1837. Thackeray, Ravenswing, i. One of the first swells on town ma’am—a regular tip-topper.
1882. Annie Edwardes, Ballroom Repent., I. 243. Give me your operatic tip-toppers—Patti and Trebelli, or nothing.
1823. Jackson’s Oxford Jrnl., 4 Jan., 4/3. The success of his sons rendered his wife and daughters so hightoploftical that they turned their back upon him—the poor old barber, and set up for *tip-topping ladies.
1827. S. P. in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 54. This is mostly with the tip-topping part [of people].
1872. Carbondale Daily News, 26 Oct., 1/2.
| Then by and by he told his woes | |
| In language quite tip-topping; | |
| How at his trial whopped he’d been, | |
| Though somewhat used to Wapping. |
1855. W. K. Kelly, trans. Cervantes’ Exemp. Novels, 475. All she had told him of the merits, worth, beauty, modesty, and *tiptoppishness … of her mistress, he quite believed.
1819. Blackw. Mag., V. 717. In the *tiptopsomest degree.
