or titup, subs. (old).—1. ‘A gentle hand-gallop or canter’ (GROSE). Hence TITUPPING (or TITUPPY) = (1) lively, gay, frisky; and (2) shaky, ticklish.
c. 1704. [J. ASHTON, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, I. 84]. Citizens in Crowds, upon Pads, Hackneys, and Hunters; all upon the TITTUP.
1818. AUSTEN, Northanger Abbey, ix. Did you ever see such a little TITUPPY thing in your life? There is not a sound piece of iron about it.
1824. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xiii. It would be endless to notice … the ‘Dear me’s’ and ‘Oh, laa’s’ of the TITUPPING misses, and the oaths of the pantalooned or buckskin’d beaux.
1868–9. BROWNING, The Ring and the Book, I. 212.
| Had held the bridle, walked his managed mule | |
| Without a TITTUP the procession through. |
2. (colloquial).—The THING (q.v.). Thus THAT’S THE TITTUP = that’s the thing; THE CORRECT TITTUP = the correct thing.
