Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any alcoholic drink; thus tippling adj., drinking alcohol.

1581		A. Hall Iliad ix 165: Of pleasant wine their tipple in they take [OED].
1655		‘Du Parc’ (trans.) Comical Hist. of Francion Bk I 8: Goe Hussy, thou art the boldest quean in the World, where hast thou got tipple to make thy selfe drunke this night?
a.1661		‘The Merry Goodfellow’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 313: While we that do traffick in tipple, / Can baffle the Gown and the Sword.
1674		T. Duffet Empress of Morocco Act III: Pernicious Woman thou hast kill’d him, And with base tipple over fill’d him.
1711		N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus II 21: Who now grown mad ’twixt Nob and Tipple; / Declar’d themselves to be the People.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera I iii: Tom Tipple, a guzzling soaking Sot.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 28: A Watch-maker happen’d one Night to tarry so long over his Tipple, that the Midnight Monarch at Ludgate had got the start of him.
1764		Bath Chron. 26 July 1/3: The Tippling Philosopher. Tom, studious all morning thinks, / And all Afternoon he drinks.
1770		Midnight Rambler 15: In this tippling age [...] there is scarcely a more profitable business, than that of selling malt and spirits.
1797		Cumberland Pacquet 29 Aug. 3/3: Willy next began the Week, / Tippling all the Sunday; / Therefore I, provoked to speak, / Did scold him well on Monday.
1785		Leeds intelligencer 1 Feb. 3/3: Label of a Gin Bottle [...] ‘No less a curse this vehicle contains — Fire to the mind, and poison to the veins’ Anti-Tipple.
1790		Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn 5: Even for the tippling entisment wherewith thou led my spouse Margaret Gills the Bottle-sucker, astray.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		Public ledger & Dly Advertiser 28 Nov. 4/1: Bow Street. The landlord of the Star and Garter appeared [...] for permitting tippling in his house [...] Sunday last .
1824		W. Maginn ‘Commentary on Ritter Bann’ in Blackwood’s Mag. Apr. n.p.: My own tipple is Rhenish.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 76: It is capital out and out tipple, which cheers as it goes down.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 293: The Young One thought he had had quite enough tipple, if not rather too much.
1840		Comic Almanack Feb. 215: Fill a bumper of sparkling burgandy before you go [...] you’ll find it a gentlemanly morning tipple!
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 291: I vill first pay for de tipple.
1861		Hills & Plains I 38: ‘Brandy is the most wholesome tipple’.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act I: Hush, here’s the tipple.
1870		Mercury (Hobart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] tipple, grog, toddy, finish .
1879		London Life 30 Aug. 2/2: ‘White, satin’ is their [i.e. barmaids] favourite ‘tipple,’ and such a facility have they for ‘lowering’ it, that [...] every distillery in the country would have to be requisitioned to supply their wants.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘The Two Majors’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 249: La Guerre would declare, ‘With the blood of a foe / No tipple is worthy to clink.’.
1890		‘’Arry on the Sincerest Form of Flattery’ Punch 20 Sept. 144/2: The B.P. has a taste for sound tipple.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 15/4: After champagne had flowed freely, it was insanely suggested that the flag ought to have some, too, so it was forthwith drenched with the expensive tipple.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 404: My tipple. Merci.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 924: This rather peculiar tipple which that sweet girl fondly imagines is a Martini.
1950		L.T. Milic ‘Chipman: A Little-Known Student of Americanisms’ in AS XXV:3 184: tipple. Intoxicating liquors.
1958		J. Osborne Epitaph for George Dillon Act II: Will you have a tipple?
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 88: [He] took off across the road to the knockabout old Burlington rubbady for a ta-ta tipple.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 July 4: Top tipple of the night? Red Bull.
2001		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 4 Feb. 53: We no more actually want the milk than Christians go to church for a tipple and a snack.
2010		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 8 Dec. 🌐 There are scores of bottle stores for folk to buy their tipple.
2017		M. Forsyth Short History of Drunkenness 2: People will alter their behaviour depden ding on [...] the tipple in qiestion.

2. any drink, esp. that which one prefers, i.e. one’s tipple.

1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 193: Wait here, and fill me out my Tipple.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 211: They indulge in a bout at the ‘swells’ tipple,’ as they call champagne.
1886		Daily Tel. 12 Jan. n.p.: That apparently innocuous beverage which has hitherto passed itself off as the teetotaller’s tipple [F&H].
1901		E.W. Hornung Black Mask (1992) 257: It has taken me all these years to find my tipple, Bunny.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 19/2: Oh, some are fond of red wine and some are fond of white, / And some are all for dancing by the pale moonlight; / But rum alone’s the tipple and the heart’s delight / Of the old, bold mate of Henry Morgan.
1919		E. Dyson ‘The Single-Handed Team’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 102: Our taste’s the same, from togs to tipple.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 182: The Czerny tipple was Pernod.
1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 96: And what’s your tipple, Abinger?
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 260: I adore the pink. It’s absolutely me. Quite my favourite tipple.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 62: My usual tipple was a glass of expensive burgundy mixed with ginger ale.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 185: Champagne was not really his tipple.
1987		(con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 114: Methylated spirits and wine was his favourite tipple I was told.
1999		Guardian 16 July 26: A cuppa of what is still Britain’s favourite tipple.
2001		I. Rankin Falls 315: And what’s your tipple of preference, DC Hood?
2020		W. Boyd Trio 4: Vodka and tap water in a tumbler was her daily tipple.

3. in fig. use of sense 2, any form of preference.

1922

G. Herriman ‘Stumble Inn’ [comic strip] Russian dressing is my favorite tipple.