tippler

plural tipplers

1. obsoleteA seller of alcoholic liquors; keeper of a tippling-house or tavern.

   It is decrede that no tippler shall allow any unlawful games in his howse.

   1567, regulation, quoted in 1894, William John Monk, History of Witney, page 111

   2 more examples

   [...] and that expresse charge be given to every keeper of any Tavern, Inne, Cookshouse, Tobacco-house, Alehouse, or any other tipler or victualler whatsoever within your ward, [...]

   1641 April 13, “By the Major. The Order of the House of Commons to the Lord Major, for the due observing the Sabbath day”, in Speeches and passages of this great and happy Parliament, page 400

   and a penalty is omposed on the sale or delivery of any ale or beer, except for household use, to any person who sells it as a common tippler or ale-house keeper, unless he has a license in force.

   1876, Stephen Dowell, A sketch of the history of Taxes in England from the earliest times to the present day, vol. 1, page 356

2. A habitual drinker; a bibber.

   […]they had picked up two fellows in that day’s march, one of which, he said, was as fine a man as ever he saw (meaning the tippler),

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII

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   He had, in truth, drunk very little - not a fourth of the quantity which a systematic tippler could carry to church on a Sunday afternoon without a hitch in his eastings or genuflections[.]

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 47

   Synonyms: bibber

3. A breed of domestic pigeon bred to participate in endurance competitions.
4. UKrailroadAn open wagon with a tipping trough, unloaded by being inverted (used for bulk cargo, especially minerals). A minecart, a lorry.

   A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.

   1960, The Iron and Coal Trades' Review - Volume 180, page 1411

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   Ackers was working as a tippler operator. His mate, L. Beveridge, saw that Ackers had tipped a full skip and Beveridge allowed another full skip to gravitate to Acker's tippler.

   1955, New South Wales. Department of Mines, Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, page 44

5. businessOne who works at a tipple.
6. alternativeAlternative form of tipple, a revolving frame or cage in which a truck or wagon is inverted to discharge its load.

   Unloading is by tipplers on to a moving conveyor at the power station, which naturally involves uncoupling individual wagons.

   1964 May, “News and Comment: A Scottish coal circuit working”, in Modern Railways, page 299, photo caption