nippy

comparative nippier · superlative nippiest

1. UKinformalFast; speedy.

   A Rolls Royce will not do if you need an economical, nippy car that is easy to park.

   c. 2000, Melanie Allen, Customer Relations Management, page 6

   2 more examples

   The jaunty 1969 crime caper about the cockney casanova of crime who pulls off a bullion heist in Turin during an England versus Italy football match using three nippy Mini Coopers—red, white and blue—speaks of a forgotten age in England[…].

   1999 September 10, Peter Bradshaw, “The Italian Job”, in The Guardian

   Small, nippy and ever present in the England set-up, the Fulham winger [Rachel Yankey] is one of the the^([sic]) most recognisable faces in the game.

   2011, “Women's football”, in The Guardian

2. informalclimatologyRather cold.

   Gosh, it's a bit nippy today: I'd better wear my gloves.

   2 more examples

   Raj took a deep breath, and reached out to give Armitage the gentlest little stroke. “It’s nippy out. Let’s take him inside.”

   2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

   Hertfordshire: On a nippy day in our local wood, we found a field mouse. It was a mouse with a plan[.]

   2023 February 18, Anoushka, “Young country diary: I found a little criminal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. Inclined to nip; bitey.

   Spoiling may create a pushy, nippy dog that lacks confidence.

   1995, Nancy Baer, Choosing a Dog: A Guide to Picking the Perfect Breed, page 161

4. ScotlandinformalAnnoying; irritating.
5. ScotlandSharp in taste.
6. ScotlandSpicy tasting.
7. ScotlandCurt.
8. ScotlandParsimonious.
9. slangThe quality of being made of nips.

plural nippies

1. UKhistoricalAlternative letter-case form of Nippy.

   Lyon's Corner House¶ A postwar survivor of a prewar original, when the name Lyon's was a guarantee of quality eating. The Pret A Manger, Starbucks and Maison Blanc of its day, complete with black-uniformed, white-pinnied waitresses known as nippies.

   [2002 June 29, Fiona Beckett, Joanna Blythman, Richard Ehrlich, Matthew Fort, Malcolm Gluck, “Noshtalgia”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

plural Nippies · plural Nippys · alternative nippy

1. UKhistoricalA waitress in a Lyons Corner House.

   The Nippy became a national icon, symbolic of the girl next door, always approachable and proper; […]

   2014, Paul Chrystal, Tea: A Very British Beverage

   2 more examples

   He reached across to the breakfast-table for the Daily Yell which was propped against the marmalade jar, and read with pursed lips a paragraph whose heavily leaded headlines had caught his eye, just before the interruption of the kipper episode. “Nippy” Found Dead in Epping Forest […] “Did the landlady mention where Bertha Gotobed was employed?” “Yes⁠—she was a waitress at the Corner House. […]”

   1927, Dorothy Sayers, Unnatural Death

   It was the task of the Lyons' waitress, the Nippy, groomed and trained by the management to be an efficient public servant, to mediate between patrons and the establishment as well as between different classes and tastes […]

   2012, Judith Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London, page 195