tipple

plural tipples

1. countableAn area near the entrance of mines which is used to load and unload coal.
2. countablerail transportAn apparatus for unloading railroad freight cars by tipping them; the place where this is done.

   Alternative form: tippler

3. countableslanguncountableAny alcoholic drink.

   What's your tipple?

   2001, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, “New Girl”, in The Office, season 1, episode 5 (television production), spoken by David Brent (Ricky Gervais)

   3 more examples

   The comedian would have divers bottles of tipple hidden under bushes and in crannies around his house, and would select guests to embark on his idea of a treasure hunt.

   1974, Raoul Walsh, “Hail to the Chief”, in Each Man in His Time: The Life Story of a Director, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →LCCN, page 254

   I know nothing about vino nero, and have always vaguely thought it a tipple from Sicily. I have never associated it with Venice.

   2015 April 22, Sam Jordison, quoting Jan Morris, “Jan Morris talks about Venice”, in The Guardian

   But not a drop to drink … Love Islanders are limited to two tipples a day.

   2022 July 18, Amelia Tait, “‘Alcohol is a hand grenade’: how reality TV went from boozy Big Brother to nosecco Love Island”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: adult beverage, alcohol, bevvy, booze, carouse, drink, fuddling, grog

present singular third person tipples · participle present tippling · participle past tippled · past tippled

1. To sell alcoholic liquor by retail.First known use earlier 16th c.
2. ambitransitiveTo drink too much alcohol.First known use mid-16th c.
3. intransitiveTo drink alcohol regularly or habitually, but not to excess.

   Few of those who were summoned left their homes, and those few generally found it more agreeable to tipple in alehouses than to pace the streets.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   Synonyms: bibble

4. transitiveTo put up (hay, etc.) in bundles in order to dry it.
5. intransitiveTo fall over; to topple.

   The men had only moved the trailer about a yard when suddenly it tippled over on its side, and bales of cotton fell on Howarth.

   1928, The World's Carriers and Carrying Trades' Review, page 476

   1 more example

   After taking a few moments to recover he turned and meandered towards the closest Supergun, ramming it from the side and watching as it tippled over.

   2017, Christopher Lee, Margaret the Abomination

plural Tipples

1. A surname originating as a patronymic.