a. Also 6–8 tipsie, 7–9 tipsey. [app. f. TIP v.2 sense 7 (or ? 4, 5): cf. tricksy: see F. Hall, Mod. Eng., 272.]
Affected with liquor so as to be unable to walk or stand steadily; partly intoxicated: often euphemistic for Intoxicated, inebriated, drunk.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1663), 117. About ten of the clock, whenas they were somewhat tipsie, and well crammed with victuals.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 48. The riot of the tipsie Bachanals.
1623. Middleton, More Dissemblers, IV. i. He that’s a gipsy may be drunk or tipsy.
a. 1668. Davenant, Play-house to Let, V. i. Sure Tony and you have drunk till y’are tipsey.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tipsy, a’most Drunk.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tipsy, that is a little in Drink, fuddled.
1777. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary, 7 April. She forced wine and water … down her throat, till she was almost tipsey.
1889. Stevenson, Master of B., viii. I have seen them flee from him when he was tipsy, and stone him when he was drunk.
b. transf. Characterized or accompanied by intoxication; arising from or causing tipsiness.
1634. Milton, Comus, 104. Tipsie dance, and Jollity.
1760. Fawkes, trans. Anacreon, Ode, xli. 24. Then let me, warm with Wine, advance, And revel in the Tipsy Dance.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., Swift (1858), 32. He was not bred up in a tipsy guard-room.
c. fig. Affected as if by intoxicating liquor; unsteady as if from drink; inclined to tip or tilt.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, VI. ix. 31. Lord G. could not keep his seat: He was tipsy poor man with his joy.
1852. H. Rogers, Ess., I. vii. 339. He was … intellectually as tipsy as ever nitrous oxide could have made him.
1895. Funk’s Standard Dict., Tipsy … 3. Bobbing and swaying; tipping about; also, liable to tip;… as, a tipsy boat.
1905. Daily News, 26 Aug., 6. They [‘To Let’ boards] lean into the street at all sorts of tipsy angles.
d. Tipsy key: a kind of watch-key invented by Bréguet: see quot.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 36. [A] Tipsy key [is] a watch key in which the upper and lower portions are connected by means of a ratchet clutch kept in gear by a spring, so that the upper part will turn the lower part in the proper direction for winding.
e. Comb. Tipsy-topsy a. (nonce-wd.) [cf. topsy-turvy], upset or in disorder as if tipsy.
a. 1845. Hood, She is far fr. the Land, 59. Trunks tipsy-topsy, The ship in a dropsy.
Hence Tipsy v., trans. to make tipsy, tipsify.
1673. Shadwell, Epsom Wells, I. Why, I … got a little tipsy’d, as they say, and forgot it. Ibid. (1691), Scowers, V. I was tipsied last night.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, iv. A butt of it would not have tipsied a sucking lamb.
