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! 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, act I:
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. 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
(Canada, US) 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.
(of wood) Tending to form chips when cut, rather than larger, more usable pieces of wood.
(dated) As dry as a chip of wood.
(archaic) Feeling sick from drinking alcohol; hungover.
Then, when ah wis apprenticed as a chippy wi a Gorgie builder, ah goes along tae Telford College tae dae ma national certificate modules in joinery. 1993, Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, Times Film School, page 36:
(US, Western, slang) A prostitute or promiscuous woman.
I manage to pick up a living in spite of the damn chippies. I don't see why the hell they don't go into the business regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free. a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:
Don't worry chippy, nobodys gonna hurtya. Maybe fuckya a little[…] 1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 52:
$80 for a chippy? I can get a goddamn horse for $50! 1971, Robert Altman, Brian McKay, 00:17:46 from the start, in McCabe & Mrs. Miller:
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 2008, Nicholas L. Syrett, chapter C, in The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, →ISBN, page 176:
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. 2004, William Lashner, chapter I, in Fatal Flaw, →ISBN, page 280:
When Victor Laszlo leads the demoralized French in the “Marseilles^([sic – meaning Marseillaise]),” and even Yvonne, the chippy who is sleeping with a Nazi officer, joins in, the stoniest intellectual collapses in tears. 2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:
(Ireland, UK, informal) A fish-and-chip shop.
Albert was flabbergasted. Yer really buyin′ a chippy?” Tom smiled whilst nodding his head. “That′s me plan.” 2009, John Wise, chapter 12, in Sweet Dreams, →ISBN, page 308:
Huge queues form outside the Chippy, often stretching back to the Coop and beyond. 2008, Patrick Naughton, chapter I, in Whistle Wood, Land of the Fathers, →ISBN, page 33:
(Australia, slang) The youngest member of a team or group, normally someone whose voice has not yet deepened, talking like a chipmunk.
(New-Zealand, colloquial) A potato chip.
why fish? for food so we can have it in our chippies 2001 February 17, Ben Scott, “fish”, in free.uk.internet.isp.blueyonder.poor-service (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Apr 2026:
(informal) A chiptune.
(US) A chipping sparrow.
How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it spend the winter? 1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 88:
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. 1908, Alice Lounsberry, chapter I, in The Garden Book for Young People, page 139:
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. 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:
(slang) An occasional drug habit, less than addiction.
(slang) To take drugs (especially heroin) on an occasional basis, rather than as an addict.
I chippy around but haven't been hooked in a year now. 1952 March 5, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 104:
For the most part, the players who are "chippying" with heroin think that they have their heroin use under control […] 2009, Erich Goode, Marijuana, page 86:
The heroin user in the United States typically "chippies" for some time before becoming a regular user. 1974, Eric Josephson, Eleanor Elizabeth Carroll, Columbia University. School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine, Drug use: epidemiological and sociological approaches (page 110)