Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to play truant.

1821

D. Haggart Autobiog. 3: I was sometimes turned down for kipping.

2. (also kip down, kipp) to sleep.

1897		J. London ‘The Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: dorse or kip, to sleep.
1907		J. London Road 74: Night came on, a beautiful night of moonlight, and I lingered by the falls until after eleven. Then it was up to me to hunt for a place to ‘kip.’.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/6: A yegg never sleeps, he ‘kipps’ while a bed is a ‘kipping place.’.
1915		L.D. Richards diary 27 Mar. 🌐 We got used to the smoke, and had a bit of tapping, and then kipped down.
1916		J. Hargrave At Suvla Bay Ch. ix: Hawk and I ‘kipped down’ (slept) together on a sandy stretch overlooking the bay.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 98: I didn’t kip at all last night.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 27: ‘Tell ’em they can kip down in the palace’.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 2: I’ve kipped in feathers just as ritz as this gingerbread bridal cell.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 61: He could kip down nice and peaceful for the night.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 24: The ferry cove ’ad toddled off early to kip.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 19: He had a friend in the second-hand car business who let him kip on his sofa.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 195: It was a place to kip for the night.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 68: I could find nowhere dry to kip-down.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 49: Steffers still kipped in the backseat of the car.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 21: I didn’t mind what she told them, so long as I could kip free in the armchair.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 65: I ended up kipping in a bus shelter.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] Awake are you, Jack? [...] Admire a man can kip anywhere.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 136: Go back on the piss with James Flood, get monumentally arseholed, kip down somewhere.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 238: He does a lot of farking kipping.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 356: I left a message telling her to let herself in because I might be kipping.

3. to lodge.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 6: That’s where me and me muvver kipped when I was a nipper.
1903		J. London People of the Abyss ix: The agreement is that kipping, or dossing, or sleeping, is the hardest problem they have to face.
1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 100: I kipped at one of the numerous ‘seven-cent’ dumps that lined the Bowery.
1922		W. McG. Eager Contemp. Rev. n.p.: So ’e picked ’im aht of ve gu’er, fahnd ’is ’at and pu’ it on ’is napper, an’ took ’im to ve doss ’ahse, where ’e kipped ’imself.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 74: ‘Where d’you kip?’ ‘Nowhere.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 94: A musician friend of mine [...] who kipped in one of these hotels.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 122: She was homeless, he suggested she should kip with him for the night.
1964		J. Orton Entertaining Mr Sloane Act II: Allowing him to kip here was a mistake.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 155: This wasn’t much to my liking, for it meant kipping down in June’s flat.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 156: He’s giving us a place to kip.

4. to sit, to lie.

1905

H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 196: We’ll all get planted on it, see, an’ then youse won’t be kippin’ on the hoid floor.

5. to put someone to bed.

1958

J. Arden Live Like Pigs Act IV: Let’s get her to a bed, eh. Where can we kip her down?

6. (US teen/Und.) to sleep on the streets.

1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 78: We were kipping from one place to another and eventually found ourselves sleeping in a haystack outside of the town.
1995		D. Lodge Therapy (1996) 280: Don’t let me catch you kipping in this doorway again. Understand?