Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the Tivoli Music Hall, London.

1916

‘New Church’ Times 22 May (2006) 79/2: Glad-eye detachment will patrol / The Empire, Tiv, and Palace.

2. the Tivoli Music Hall, Sydney.

1894		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 23 June 6/1: You can bet your boots, or do as George [...] advised the girls in ‘Dandy Dick,’ and bet your petticoat on the fact that Harry Bickards will have something good at the Tiv. to-night.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 12: When Jonah was flush, he took her to the ‘Tiv.’.
1917		Rising Sun 4 Jan. 1/2: ‘Yes,’ added the out-backer, ‘’Tis a bosker band all right, but they ’ad that blanky tune at the Tiv’ in Bourke Street before we ever come over here.’.
1933		L. Stone Larrikin 308: Tiv – the favorite vaudeville house of Sydney even today.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 261: What about giving the hunt a miss tonight and hopping up to the Tivoli? I haven’t been to the old Tiv in years.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 97: ‘You and your friend should be working at the Tiv with that sleight-of-hand act’.

3. (Aus.) the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne.

1895		Melbourne Punch 14 Nov. 6/4: Florrie Esdaile, of the Tiv., has two other sisters behind the footlights.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 10 May 10/3: They Say [...] That Percy is copying the yankee style since he left the Tiv. Too flash, Percy.
1956		Argus (Melbourne) 9 Nov. 15/2: One dabbed at her moist eyes with a lace handkerchief and said to her companion: ‘Isn’t it a shame what they’ve done to the dear old Tiv’.
1967		Canberra Times (ACT) 6 Apr. 1/2: THE END OF THE TIV. Fire early yesterday virtually destroyed the famous old Tivoli Theatre in Bourke Street, Melbourne.

4. a vaudevillian, associated with a Tivoli theatre.

1895

Melbourne Punch 19 Sept. 6/2: Mr. George A. Jones is well known and popular with Melbourne audiences, and his appearance this week as one of the ‘Tivs.’ has met with general approval. Mr. Frank Yorke, the other new ‘Tiv.’ is well able to keep his end up.