Tip

subs. (common).—1.  Special information; private knowledge. Specifically an advice concerning betting or a Stock-Exchange speculation intended to benefit the recipient: THE STRAIGHT TIP = an absolute CERT (q.v.); in racing = direct advice from owner or trainer. Also (2) a horse, a stock, etc., specially recommended as a sound investment. As verb = to impart exclusive information. Hence TIPSTER (see quot. 1874): also TIPPER. ‘THAT’S THE TIP’ = ‘That’s the right thing’; TO MISS ONE’S TIP = to fail.

  1567.  HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors [E.E.T.S.], 20. [Harman speaks of having coaxed his friends the beggars, and thus] attained to the TYP.

  1869.  H. J. BYRON, Not Such a Fool as He Looks [French’s acting edition], 8. Mr. Topham Sawyer MISSED HIS own TIP as well as his victim’s, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.

  1874.  HENRY SAMPSON [The Slang Dictionary (HOTTEN), s.v. TIPSTER]. A ‘turf agent who collects early and generally special information of the condition and racing capabilities of horses in the training districts, and posts the same to his subscribers to guide their betting. There are, whatever non-racing men may think, many ‘touts’ whose information is valuable to even the ‘best-informed’ writers.

  1881.  A. C. GRANT, Bush-Life in Queensland, II. 33. He was a real good fellow, and would give them THE STRAIGHT TIP.

  1885.  The Field, 3 Oct. Storm Light was a great TIP for the Snailwell Stakes.

  1885.  Evening Standard, 3 Oct. The late Mr Segrott, who carried on the business of TIPSTER and sausage making, was the last year’s winner of this plate.

  1886.  The Quarterly Review, clxiii. 175. It should be the first duty of consuls to keep the Foreign Office promptly supplied with every commercial ‘TIP’ that can be of use to British trade.

  1889.  G. H. STUTFIELD, Modern Gambling and Gambling Laws, in The Nineteenth Century, xxvi. Nov., 846. The crowd of touts and TIPSTERS whose advertisements fill up the columns of the sporting press.

  1891.  N. GOULD, The Double Event, 173. That’s the rummiest TIP I ever got. Ibid. (1898), Landed at Last, iv. Tucka-Tucka’s the place to breed good horses, take my TIP for it.

  1897.  MARSHALL, Pomes, 30. So, take my TIP and close your features now. Ibid., 41. For the landlord had the pip, and required a first-rate TIP. Ibid., 65. I rumbled the TIP as a matter of course.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, v. You kin take my TIP; there’s some very respectable people in this place.

  1900.  LYNCH, High Stakes, xxiii. I guess Drexel will know whether it’s a TIP or not.

  1901.  Free Lance, 9 Feb., 470. 2. [They] were pursued by their lady friends for TIPS as to what to buy or sell.

  2.  (colloquial).—A gratuity; a vail: spec. money in acknowledgment of service rendered or expected. Also (loosely), any gift of money. Likewise TIPPERY = payment. As verb TIP = (1) to give TIPS; and (2) to earn money (see quots. 1610 and 1772).

  1610.  ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 3 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. And TIP LOWT with thy prat.

  1707.  FARQUHAR, The Beaux Stratagem, ii. 3. Then I, sir, TIPS me the verger with half a crown.

  1727.  GAY, The Beggar’s Opera, iii. 1. Lockit. Did he TIP handsomely?—How much did he come down with?

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 139. This job, will TIP you one pound one.

  1844.  B. DISRAELI, Coningsby, I. viii. He had been loaded with kindness … and, finally, had been TIPPED in a manner worthy of a Marquess and of a grandfather.

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, xii. Mrs. Tester, who was dabbing her curtseys in thankfulness for the large amount with which our hero had ‘TIPPED’ her.

  1854–5.  THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xvi. Remember how happy such benefactions made you in your own early time, and go off on the very first fine day and TIP your nephew at school! Ibid. What money is better bestowed than that of a schoolboy’s TIP?

  1857.  DUCANGE ANGLICUS, pseud. The Vulgar Tongue, 39. Lawyer Bob draws fakements up; he’s TIPPED a peg for each.

  1874.  BEETON, The Siliad, 99.

  1877.  Scribner’s Magazine, July, 400. This whole matter of ‘TIPPING’ waiters, and of waiters expecting to be ‘TIPPED,’ is a very marked manifestation of the poison of pauperism.

  1884.  GREENWOOD, The True History of a Little Ragamuffin, xv. ‘Come on … TIP UP, Smiffield.’ ‘TIP UP!’ I repeated, in amazement.’… ‘Fork out,’ said the boy.

  1885.  Daily Telegraph, 16 Jan. Others declare that those only who display beforehand the alluring TIP catch the porter’s eye.

  1891.  LEHMANN, Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 49. You get your pocket-money regularly, and I know the Pater TIPPED you at Christmas, and the Mater told me she gave you two pounds when you went back.

  1898.  G. GISSING, The Town Traveller, xxiv. No doubt he was jolly frightened when you spotted him, and you know how he met you once or twice and TIPPED you.

  3.  (Felsted School).—(a) A false report; (b) a foolish blunder in translating.

  1890.  Felstedian, Feb. 3. Some one ventured to suggest that it was all a beastly TIP.

  4.  (old).—A draught of liquor; an abbreviation (B. E.) of TIPPLE (q.v.). TO TIP OFF = to drink (B. E. and GROSE).

  Verb. (common).—Generic for doing: a verb of general application (HARMAN, B. E., GROSE, VAUX, HOTTEN). Thus TO TIP THE LOUR (COLE, BRASS, RHINO, etc.) = to pay, give, get or lend money (see subs. sense 2); TO TIP A SOCK = to land a blow; TO TIP A SETTLER = to knock-out; TO TIP TO ADAM TILER = to hand the swag to a confederate; TO TIP A MISH = to put on a shirt; TO TIP OFF = (1) to drink: see TIPPLE; (2) to die; TO TIP THE LION = to flatten one’s nose with the thumb and extend the mouth with the fingers (GROSE); TO TIP A DADDLE (THE FIVES, or THE GRIPES IN A TANGLE) = to shake hands (GROSE); TO TIP A COPPER = to sky a coin; TO TIP A YARN = to tell a story; TO TIP THE TRAVELLER = to humbug, to romance; TO TIP THE WINK = to wink (as a sign of caution, understanding, etc.); TO TIP THE RED RAG = to scold; TO TIP THE RAGS (or THE LEGS) A GALLOP (or THE DOUBLE) = to decamp (GROSE); TO TIP ALL NINE = to knock all the skittles down at once (GROSE); TO TIP THE VELVET = to tongue a woman (GROSE); TO TIP A STAVE = to sing; TO TIP THE LITTLE FINGER (Australian) = to drink; TO TIP THE GRAMPUS = to duck a man: a penalty for sleeping on watch (nautical); TO TIP ONE’S BOOM OFF = to hurry away (nautical); TO TIP THE LONG-’UN = to foraminate a woman; TO TIP A STAVE = to sing a song; TO TIP A NOD = to recognise; TO TIP A MORAL = to give the straight; TO TIP A RISE = to befool, etc.

  1610.  ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 37. Cheates, which word is vsed generally for things, as TIP me that Cheate, Give me that thing.

  1676.  A Warning for House-keepers, 6.

  1692.  DRYDEN, Juvenal, vi.

  1694.  MOTTEUX, Rabelais, IV. vi. The quarrel being hushed, Panurge TIPPED THE WINK upon Epistemon and Friar John … taking them aside.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. TIP. TIP your Lour, or Cole or I’ll Mill ye, c. give me your Money or I’ll kill ye. TIP the Culls a Sock, for they are sawcy, c. Knock down the Men for resisting. TIP the Cole to Adam Tiler, c. give your Pickpocket Money presently to your running Comrade. TIP the Mish, c. give me the Shirt. TIP me a Hog, c. lend me a Shilling.

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Aristænetus’s Letters, in Works, i. 251. I now TIPP’D THE WINK, at her, and she as kindly return’d it.

  1709.  ADDISON, The Tatler, No. 86, 27 Oct. Upon which the pert Jackanapes Nick Doubt TIPPED me THE WINK, and put out his tongue at his Grandfather.

  1731–5.  POPE, Moral Essays, ii. 33.

  174[?].  CIBBER [?], Flora, ii. 2. She TIPT THE WINK upon me, with as much as to say, desire him not to go till he hears from me.

  1748.  SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xii. I began to smell his character, and, TIPPING STRAP THE WINK, told the company, etc. Ibid. (1760–2), Sir Launcelot Greaves, vi. Then, my lad, there would be some picking; aha! dost thou TIP ME THE TRAVELLER, my boy?

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 288.

  1778.  BURNEY, Evelina, lxxviii. ‘Egad,’ said Mr Coverley, ‘the Baronet has a mind to TIP us a touch of THE HEROICS this morning!’

  c. 1787.  Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 86].

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 309. Prowling about in masquerade, and TIPPING THE WINK to every blackguard who parades the street.

  1819.  T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 15. He TIPP’D HIM a settler.

  1821.  P. EGAN, Anecdotes of the Turf, 183. She TIPPED THE party such a dish of RED RAG as almost to create a riot in the street.

  1821.  W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, ii. 3. Hand us over three browns out of that ’ere tizzy; and TIP US THE HEAVY. (Landlord receives money and delivers porter?)

  1824.  Sonnets for the Fancy [Boxiana, iii. 622]. The knowing bench had TIPPED her buzzer QUEER.

  1827.  BULWER-LYTTON, Pelham, lxxxiii. TIP him THE DEGAN, Fib, fake him through and through. Ibid., xlix. I shall give you a cooling in the watch-house, if you TIPS us any of YOUR JAW.

  1832.  J. WILSON, Noctes Ambrosianæ, Sept. TIP THE captain one of your BROADSIDES.

  1837.  B. DISRAELI, Venetia, I. xiv. TIP me THE CLANK like a dimber mort.

  1838.  J. WRIGHT, Mornings at Bow Street, ‘John Saunders on Horseback,’ p. 206. In plain terms, he fairly ‘TIPP’D ’EM THE DOUBLE’—he was vanished.

  1839.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], 13. If he don’t TIP THE COLE without more ado, give him a taste of the pump, that’s all.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor. I. 456. Just by sweetening them, and then they don’t mind TIPPING THE LOAVER (money).

  1862.  C. F. BROWNE (‘Artemus Ward’), Artemus Ward: His Book (1899), 158. ‘TIP US YER BUNCH OF FIVES, old faker!’ said Artemus Junior.

  1881.  R. L. STEVENSON, Treasure Island, x. TIP US A STAVE.

  1884.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xxix. If I could TIP her THE WINK, she’d light out and save me and blow on our dead-beats.

  1897.  MARSHALL, Pomes, 45. Our jockey pal TIPPED us THE WINK To denote that he’d done in the physic.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xxi. So Bill TIPS me THE WINK not to tumble to their lingo.

  1900.  R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, v. The Frenchman, however, TIPPED Ross A WINK, which elated him, and was the beginning of a secret alliance.

  1901.  W. S. WALKER, In the Blood, 20. I TIPPED ’im ONE ON THE SMELLER, as soon as ’e said it. Ibid., 21. I’ll TIP my push THE WINK when you come up.

  ON THE TIP OF THE TONGUE, phr. (colloquial).—On the point of speech; about to be said.

  1843.  DICKENS, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxix. It was ON THE TIP OF THE BOY’S TONGUE to relate what had followed; but … he checked himself.