Forms: 4 tope, Sc. toupe, 4–6 tupe, 5–7 tuppe, (6 tuepe, touppe, towpe), 6–7 tupp, 6, 8–9 Sc. tip, 6– tup; 8–9 Sc. and north. dial. tuip (tüp), teep, teap, toop. [Origin unknown; chiefly Sc. and north. Eng. App. etymologically tōp, which would regularly give toop (tūp) in north. Eng., and (tüp) or (töp) in Sc.: cf. bóc, bōk, book, Sc. buik. (Skeat suggests that it may be a transferred use of Norw. and Sw. tupp ‘cock,’ said to be the same word as TOP sb.1)]
1. A male sheep; a ram.
13[?]. Ballad Scot. Wars, xxvii., in Ritson, Anc. Songs & Ball. (1877), 38. A Toupe sal stande agayn ay Bare.
1340. [see tup-head in 2].
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5566. Þai ware hedously hoge & horned as Tupis.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., VIII. 77. The tuppe is chosun fair of altitude Ywombe[d] side.
1510. Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), C v b. Aries, a tup or a ram.
1570. Levins, Manip., 140/18. A Tip, shepe, aries.
1590. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 58. A touppe iijs viijd. Ibid., 61. Seven towpes. Ibid. (1594), 118. Three tupes. Ibid. (1600), 123. Towe old tupps.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 61. To run ful but, as rams, or tups, use to do, one against another.
1771. Usef. Proj., in Ann. Reg., 107/1. He sells no tups, but lets them at from 5 guineas to 30 guineas for the season.
1804. Scott, Lett. to Ellis, 19 May, in Lockkart. Long sheep, and short sheep, and tups, and gimmers, and hogs, and dinmonts, had made a perfect sheepfold of my understanding.
1903. Times, 12 Feb., 12/4. Heavy sheep 71/2d, to 8d.; ewes and tups 6d. to 7d.
b. transf. Applied to a person.
1652. Shirley, Honoria & Mam., III. i. Cuckolds’ sconce, Or haven, to which all the tups strike sail.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. viii. The Ship being clear’d of Dingdong and his Tups.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Tup, a ram; figuratively a cuckold.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxvi. ‘He ’ll be a Teviotdale tup, tat ane,’ said the chairman, ‘tat’s for keeping ta crown o’ ta causeway tat gate.’
1880. Eben. Smith, Verses, 69. Douce old tups.
c. transf: (a) A pavier’s mallet. (b) The head of a forge-hammer or steam-hammer. (c) The falling weight of a pile-engine.
1848. ‘Tom Treddlehoyle,’ Bairnsla Foak’s Ann., 46 (E.D.D.). Little undersized munkeys, not much heigher than tups at thay knock boolders daan we i’t street.
1873. Iron, 5 April, 356/1. A 45-cwt. double-acting Nasmyth’s steam hammer, with wrought iron tup.
1884. Building News, 15 Aug., 242/3. Ram, tup, monkey, are names variously given by workmen to the block … which is let fall upon the head of the pile.
1907. Daily Chron., 22 March, 9/5. The heavy ‘tup’ comes down smack on the bar.
2. attrib. and Comb., as tup-breeder, -head, -horn (in quot. attrib.), -mutton, -seller; tup-headed, adj.; also tup-eild, -eill a. Sc. (EILD, GELD, YELD adjs.], of a ewe: barren; tup fair, a fair or annual market mainly for the sale of rams; tup-hog, a male lamb from its weaning till its first shearing; tup-lamb, a he-lamb; tup-men, one who keeps and supplies rams for breeding purposes; tup running: see quot.; tup society, a sheep-breeding association; tup-yeld, -yield a. = tup-eild.
1831. Sutherland Farm Rep., 82, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. In order to suit the market, the *tup-breeders preserved only the finest of their young store.
1823. Farmer’s Mag., 278. At the lambing time … there were found 99 *tup-eild ewes and gimmers.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 38. If she has failed being in lamb she is said to be a tup-eill gimmer.
c. 1340. Peter & Paul, 248, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 79/1. When þe heuede was smiten awaie, A *tope-heued on þe erde laie.
1816. Scott, Antiq., vi. Did you ever hear such an old *tup-headed ass?
1591. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 30. Shepe remainynge in this parishe…. At North Pittington a *tuppe hogge.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 38. After a lamb has been weaned, until the first fleece is shorn from its back … a female is called a ewe-hogg, a male a tup-hogg.
1718. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., III. iii. Twa *toop-horn-spoons down Maggie lays.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 313. They used … to cut their *tup-lambs early within six weeks old.
1782. Burns, Death Poor Mailie, 43. My poor toop-lamb, my son an’ heir.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 613. Tup-lambs are allowed to retain their full tails until a year old, in order to strengthen the back.
1790. W. Marshall, Midl. C., I. 429. Getting Rams, to be let out again to inferior *tupmen, as ram-getters.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 100. *Tup-mutton … is always hard, of disagreeable flavour, and in autumn not eatable.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., *Tup running,… in Derbyshire, a ram whose tail is well soaped and greased is turned out to the multitude, any one that can take him by the tail and hold him fast is to have him for his own.
1831. Sutherland Farm Rep., 82, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. To the surprise of the *tup-sellers … nothing could be sold [at the fair] but tups of coarse quality.
1799. A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 309. In 1796 there was a new *Tup Society established at Lincoln, for the encouragement of breeding.
1825. Jamieson, *Tup-yield, tup-eild, adj.
