Meanings
tippet1
plural tippets
- A shoulder covering, typically the fur of a fox, with long ends that dangle in front.
Drygoods shops did not have much that was Christmassy to display except red flannel and rabbit fur baby coats and muffs and tippets.
1942, Emily Carr, “Christmas”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC1 more example
In practice, this "sunshine roof" did not prove so attractive, since a correspondent wrote to the Railway Times on September 4, 1839, recording that a third-class lady passenger "had her tippet set on fire, and, in extinguishing the same, severely burnt her hand.
1944 May and June, “Notes and News: The Eastern Counties Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 182 - A stole worn by Anglican ministers or other clergymen.
[…] so this Iesuitical sect is descrired by their long [i]ackets, their course stockinges, their thicke cobled shoes, their long clokes with claspe vnder the chin, their sorbonical tippet […]
1581, Meredith Hanmer, chapter 3, in The Iesuites Banner, London - historicalA piece of mail armor protecting the shoulders and neck; a camail.
We are inclined to think this warrior wears his camail over the upper part of the surcoat, which would account for the sudden disappearance of the shield strap or guige when it reaches the mail tippet.
1908, Archaeologia Cambrensis, page 3792 more examples
Taking the place of the mail coif is the “camail” or mail tippet, which is fastened to the edge of the bascinet. His arm defences show circular plates or “palettes,” which guard the inside of the arm at pit and elbow.
2012, Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 221Hence this leader wears a richly decorated fur hat and a large gold neck chain, as well as a full steel cuirass over a padded mail tippet. The armour has the horizontally ridged breastplate characteristic of Germany […]
2014, David Nicolle, Forces of the Hanseatic League: 13th–15th Centuries, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 46 - ScotlandobsoleteA handful of straw bound together at one end, used for thatching.
The school constituency[…]provded “tippets” of straw to repair the thatch
1882, David Douglas, Life & Work
Tippet2
Origin
tippet · noun
- Latintapete“cloth”
- Old Englishtæppet
- Middle Englishtippet
- Englishtippet
From Middle English tippet, Old English tæppet, from Latin tapete (“cloth”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with tippet
All rhymes →Cite this entry
tippet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tippet
“tippet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tippet. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tippet,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tippet.
Source: tippet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.