Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to give, to hand over, to lend.

1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 41: To tip to giue. Tip a make ben Roome Coue, giue a halfepeny good Gentleman.
1612		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ O per se O O2: Till Cramprings quier, tip Cove his hire and quier-ken do them catch.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 193: Mort. [...] Cove be sure thou tip me some Lower, when you budge backe from the Ken.
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn) n.p.: Earnest a part, Tip me my Earnest, give me my share.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 53: Tip, to give.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Gage, a Pot or Pipe. Tip me a Gage, give me a Pot or Pipe.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 194: Rum-hooper, tip us presently a Boosing-cheat of Rum gutlers.
1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: A Bulk or Gammon, alias that is he that jostles up to a Man, whilst another picks his Pocket; and no sooner got his Booty, but tips it, alias gives it to his Bulk or Gammon.
1722		S. Centlivre Artifice Act I: She [...] tipp’d her Maid a Box o’ the Ear.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 101: She very civilly tipped me a Distemper very common in Naples.
1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: You must tip me your Clout before I derrick.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: Tip me my Pops; give me my Pistols.
1764		Bloody Register III 170: She took both the ladies watches off, unperceived, and tipped them to one of his companions.
1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin I viii: Your jazy pays the garnish, unless the fees you tip.
1794		W. Godwin Caleb Williams (1966) 212: Damn me, tip us none of your palaver.
1808		B. Bradshaw Hist. of Billy Bradshaw 11: Tip me ten quids, and I shall directly put you upon the spirit of the affair.
1810		‘Jonny Raw & Polly Clark’ Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 4: With that she gave her arm a twister, / Ri tol de rol / and tipt him such a precious fister.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 39: For, when Bob can’t afford us sense, / He tips us poetry, instead.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) II 125: Four hundred francs for this would not be too much [...] Come, tip us the needful.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 97: Hurrah! now, Bill Spurey, suppose you tip us a stave.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 37: ’Ello, Charley, my kid! tip us your mawley.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 39: Lawyer Bob draws fakements up; he’s tipped a peg for each.
c.1861		‘A Night in a London Workhouse’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 137: Tip me a comfortable rug now.
1879		G.G. Hart E.C.B. Susan Jane 19: And to drink, sing, or dance, shure I niver refuse. / And I’ll tip yez a lilt – av me coold ye’ll excuse.
1882		‘Thormanby’ Famous Racing Men 71: Recollect [...] how frightened mamma was; and how the guv. tipped me a sov., eh, Mark?
1884		Dundee Courier 26 Feb. 7/3: Tony seized the glass [...] the swallowed the contents at a gulp [...] ‘Tip us another’.
1894		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 291: Tip us another tenner, Dicky, an’ I’ll tell ye ’ow I heard o’ ye being here!
1898		Blackburn Wkly Standard 3 Dec. 10/2: Defendant : He says ‘All right; tip us me five and a kick I’ve earned, and we’ll cry quits’.
1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 20: I tipped ’im one on the smeller.
1902		Sun (NY) 12 Oct. 18/2: One o’ those fat-jowled, Joe Miller people tipped me the greasy grin .
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 123: I drove for more than two hours to an ale-house near Battersea Park to see McManus and tip him the news that both Guerin and Miller were laid by the heels.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 75: I couldn’t tip any sucker emotional shit to her.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 6: I merrily tipped a quid to the tramp.

2. to give a monetary gratuity.

1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 2: I tipp’d the fellow a George to carry this letter for me.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera III i: Did he tip handsomely? – How much did he come down with?
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 25: While the fiddlers (old Potts having tipp’d them a bandy) / Play’d ‘Green grow the rushes,’ in honour of SANDY!
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 189: You must tip. It is the sort of sweetener we folks expect, to make everything right!
1837–8		‘Fine Young Common Prostitute’ in Cuckold’s Nest 40: If you would only tip the blunt, / She’d quickly show to you / All the fundamental rules / Belonging to her flue.
1848		Sinks of London Laid Open 43: Blow me, if one of the young ladies [...] did not tip me a tanner.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 129: Mr Robert Filcher was also ‘tipped’ in the same liberal manner.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 17: Uncle William, who was never without a store of half-crowns wherewith to ‘tip’ us.
1877		Scribner’s Monthly July 400: This whole matter of tipping waiters, and of waiters expecting to be tipped, is a very marked manifestation of the poison of pauperism [F&H].
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VI 1214: I tipped her, which I half fancied she didn’t expect.
1894		G.A. Sala Things I Have Seen II 80: The Honourable Billy D [...] frequently ‘tipped’ me with half-crowns.
1899		Kipling ‘Flag of Their Country’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 204: ‘Did he tip you?’ McTurk exhibited a blessed whole sovereign.

3. to pay.

1781		Belle’s Stratagem 14: Come, Bet — lug out — give me your draught for five hundred more, which will make three thousand neat — and spur me to death if I don’t tip you cent. per cent.
c.1790		‘Shawn A Glana’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: I’ll spend my shilling with the fairest of women, / No better than I would tip it with my fingers three.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 274: tip to give, pay, or bribe. [...] The tip is a term frequently used to signify the money concerned in any dealings or contract existing between parties; synonymous with the dues.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 265: Give him another kevarten [...] and if you are too scaly to tip for it, I’ll shell out and shame you.
1840		Australasian Chron. (Sydney) 24 Mar. 2/5: [N]othing is more common than for a peaceable man to be lodged [...] in the lock-up under pretence of drunkenness, and then released [...] upon the payment of a fine, which in their slang they call tipping.
1856		Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 Feb. 3/1: He requested her somewhat bluntly to ‘tip up or he should make her’.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 30: Tip the Rhino. Produce the money.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: The paper makers get the tats, and never tip the mots a posh, but fence the milky ones with some swag chovey bloak. The men who pretend they are from a paper mill obtain the rags, and never pay the women (of the houses they call at) anything, and then sell the white rags to some marine store dealer.
1890		H. Fludyer Letters 49: I know the Pater tipped you at Christmas.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 124: Tip out the bunce, old sport.

4. (Aus.) to bribe.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 274: tip: to give, pay, or bribe. To take the tip, is to receive a bribe in any shape; and they say of a person who is known to be corruptible, that he will stand the tip.
1847		[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 92: Prisoners [...] got out of barracks by ‘tipping’ (bribing) the watchman and constables.
1901		Truth (Sydney) 28 July 2/7: If them there inspectors / Was’'t tipped, they’d make things hum; / Nosin round with much annoyance.

5. vtr. to extort money from.

1868

Sportsman 5 Mar. 2/1: Notes on News [...] ‘Champagne Charley’ gents, graduating, over ‘fizz’ paid for out of their masters’ tills [...] are ‘tipped’ [...] on a regular black mail system by the proprietors of these ‘flash cribs ’.