English

Alternative forms

• chippie

Noun

chippy ‎(plural chippies)

1. (Britain) A fish-and-chip shop.
   • 2008, Patrick Naughton, Whistle Wood, Land of the Fathers, page 33,

     Huge queues form outside the Chippy, often stretching back to the Coop and beyond.

   • 2009, John Wise, Sweet Dreams, page 308,

     Albert was flabbergasted. Yer really buyin′ a chippy?”

     Tom smiled whilst nodding his head. “That′s me plan.”

2. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A carpenter.
3. (Australia, slang) The youngest member of a team or group, normally someone whose voice has not yet deepened, talking like a chipmunk.
4. (New Zealand) A potato chip.
5. (US, slang) A prostitute or promiscuous woman.
   • 1971, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 00:17:46 from the start:

     $80 for a chippy? I can get a goddamn horse for $50!

   • 2004, William Lashner, Fatal Flaw, page 280,

     I give the pictures of the wife and the lawn boy to the husband. I give the pictures of the husband and the chippy to the wife.

   • 2008, Nicholas L. Syrett, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, page 176,

     Canby hints that, even with chippies, sexual intercourse was rare; even putting aside his complete lack of regard for the chippy as an actual human being, however, this passage makes clear that whatever did occur with these chippies may not have been as consensual as he presumed.⁷²

6. (demoscene, informal) A chiptune.
7. (US) A chipping sparrow.
   • 1902, Henry Harrison Metcalf, John Norris McClintock, The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire magazine devoted to history, biography, literature, and state progress, Volume 32, page 385,

     In due time a nest-full of little chippies appear to be nourished with insectiverous^[sic] food from a parental beak until fledged and able to look after themselves.

   • 1908, Alice Lounsberry, The Garden Book for Young People, page 139,

     Surely no young chippy was ever so stout and so emphatic as this bird.

     The funny part of it all is that the starling appears to make the chippies do whatever it pleases.

   • 1939, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, page 88,

     How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it spend the winter?

Derived terms

• chippy-chaser, chippy joint

Synonyms

• (fish-and-chips shop): chipper

Adjective

chippy ‎(comparative chippier, superlative chippiest)

1. (Canada, Britain) Ill-tempered, disagreeable.
   • 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act I

     To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,

     In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,

     Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,

     From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 5,

     There was something so irksome about Barry Groom that he had a fascination: you longed for him to annoy you again. He was incredibly chippy, was that the thing?—all his longings came out as a kind of disdain for what he longed for.

2. (Canada, sports) Involving violence or unfair play.
   • 2007, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, cisport.ca,

     The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns and University of Saskatchewan Huskies battled to a 1-1 draw in a chippy Canada West men’s soccer affair that saw the teams combine for 33 fouls and five yellow cards.

3. (of wood) Tending to form chips when cut, rather than larger, more usable pieces of wood.

Related terms

• chippily