or tittivate, verb. (colloquial).—To spruce up; to put finishing touches to one’s toilet.
1836. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz (‘Mr. John Dounce’). Regular as clockwork—breakfast at nine—dress and TITTIVATE a little.
1843–4. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Attaché, xxiii. Well, I’ll arrive in time for dinner; I’ll TITIVATE myself up, and down to drawin’-room.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, xlii. The girls are all so TITIVATED off with false beauty and flipperjigs, that a fellow loses his heart before he knows it.
1857–9. THACKERAY, The Virginians, xlviii. Call in your black man, and TITIVATE a bit.
