Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) cheerful, lively, perhaps slightly drunk.

1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dict.’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 90: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] Chipper.
1835		Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, PA) 3 Aug. 1/2: Pretty soon, back she comes [...] looking as chipper as ever.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 125: There sot Katey by the fire, lookin’ as bloomin’ as a rose, and as chipper as a canary bird.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 176: The places were chuck full of allfired harnsome gals and spruce looking fellers, that [...] talked and laughed as chipper as could be.
1861		J.G. Holland Lessons in Life I 21: I know men whose mood is usually exceedingly pleasant. [...] They are cheerful, and chipper, and sunshiny, and not easily moved to anger .
1871		H.B. Stowe Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories (1881) 36: He turned up at last all alive, chipper as a skunk blackbird.
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy II 160: Able to keep up your end of a conversation with anybody, and allus ez chipper as a jay-bird.
1878		H.B. Stowe Poganuc People 24: He’s putty smart and chipper.
1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 94: She was middling chipper.
1891		A. Day Mysterious Beggar 226: He don’t sling a very chippery lip th’s mornin’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 2 Sept. 7/4: Ton Molloy, looking bright and chipper [...] returned from Brisbane.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 32: He says, chipper as a four-time winner, says he: ‘Go home and order me a carriage down here’.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 279: You ain’t feelin’ very chipper, hey, Maggie?
1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 253: Cousin Egbert was still chipper after this reverse.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 228: These screws are all so chipper they would break out guns and make them crack after a running vic for the fun of it.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 235: A gay or frolicsome person was ‘as chipper as a coop full o’ cat-birds’.
1948		J.F. Bardin Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly in Bardin Omnibus (1976) 511: Purty soon she’ll be chipper as a tom-tit.
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 34: Here they were, feeling quite chipper.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 90: Well, you’re looking chipper.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 197: Peggy [...] wasn’t feeling too chipper herself.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 111: The man is particularly chipper, chuckling after every other sentence.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: chip – happy, excited.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 111: Feeling pretty damned chipper, actually, Wheezy, old thing.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] I’ve been feeling pretty chipper. Post-orgasmically chipper.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 65: He sounded as chipper as ever.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Michael rang [...] He’s fine, very chipper.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 83: [His] face appeared strangely chipper.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Nick showed up sic the next morning looking relatively chipper.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 22: The doctor whisks in, chipper as Ruth Gordon in Rosemary’s Baby.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 448: For a man haemorrhaging millions, Bullshit Bob Inglis appears chipper.
2021		‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 91: Reinhard was kind of chipper.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 136: Roddie was full of beans, astonishingly chipper.