tip-top adj.
1. (also tip-topping, top-tipping) excellent, supreme, ultimate; with the superlative tip-toppest.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Provoked Husband III i: l. town: What Humour is she in To-day? la. grace: O! in tip-top Spirits. [Ibid.] V iii: Why, for your Men of Tip-top Wit and Pleasure, about Town. | |
| ‘A Description of Various Clubs’ in Coll. Works (1966) III 8: I might have heard Gee Ho Dobbin sung in a tip-top manner. | |
| Festivous Notes II iii 84: They pleased excellently well, for Pedro declares [...] that they were tip-top. | |
| Lame Lover in Works (1799) II 68: A lady who ruins her family [...] and a gentleman who kills his best friend [...] are your only tip-top people of honour. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Wicklow Mountains 7: My kid sings so top-tipping. | |
| ‘Bozzy and Piozzi’ Works (1794) I 341: I’m a man of tip-top breeding. | |
| A Cure for the Heart Ache in Inchbold (1808) XXV 58: Here I am, tip-top spirits – ripe for any thing. | |
| ‘Four In Hand’ in Tegg’s Prime Song Book 33: ‘Bang up’ seems the watch-word to be, / From one tip top driver t’other. | |
| Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 11: For Tom, since he took to these Holy Allies, / Is as tip-top a beau as all Bond Street supplies. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | National Advocate (N.Y.) 28 Sept. 2/3: Supposing these roysterers to be Clerks, I made particular enquiries of the watchmen, [who] insisted that they were all ‘your real tip top merchants.’. | |
| Every Night Book 83: Were a novice to pop in among them, he would scarcely suspect he was among ‘The tip-top lads of the bruising band’. | |
| Bk of Sports 6: [note] His drag is always crammed both inside and out with the tip-top sort of customers. [Ibid.] [note] 130: Every point of the Female Jockey is tip-top. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Herald 18 June 4/1: My eyes why doesn’t you go to the tip top cove at once. | |
| Sporting Mag. Nov. 29: All others who are amibitious to be with the darlings must be astride the tip-top ones of the day. | |
| Handy Andy 183: It’s coming, so it is, with them tip-top men. | |
| Wkly Rake (NY) 6 Aug. n.p.: The Whip may be made a tip-top, bang-up, slap-dash, first chop, out-and-out sporting sheet. | |
| Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 2/4: The guests began to assemble upon the Poop, all apparently in tip-top soul, and ripe for a spree. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Memoirs of a Griffin I 125: Linkboys [...] scampering ahead in good, tip-top style. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 May 1/6: I was the tip-top of the sirjeants [sic] of the regiment. | |
| [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 17/2: If he would follow his directions, he would soon become a ‘tip-top cracksman’. | |
| Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 62: He ascertained that the Tally-ho was a tip-top goer. | |
| N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 18 Aug. 7/4: She don’t care a d— for the Gazette, as tip-top gamblers keep her girls. | |
| Seven Curses of London 109: Carrying his shameful figure and miserable hang-dog visage into tip-top society. | |
| Hoosier School-Master (1892) 123: But I ’low he’s allers bore a tip-top character. | |
| Deacon Brodie II tab.V iv: Ain’t this Deacon Brodie the fine workman that’s been doing all these tip-topping burglaries? | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 16/1: The costumes were as beautiful as only the daughters of Jerusalem know how to make them, and it was one of the tip-toppest weddings we have seen for many a day. | |
| ‘The Reminiscences of Mr. John Dobbs’ Dagonet Ditties 90: It frequently happened my supper I took / With a tip-top celebrity’s housemaid or cook. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 4/8: Burglary is a fine art and a tip-top burglar is born — not made. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 231: ‘How d’you think I’d like it?’ ‘Tiptop,’ I answered. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 19 Jan. 247: His bowling was simply ‘tip-topping.’. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Mar. 8/2: He has been a tip-top mayor. | |
| A Thief in the Night (1992) 413: I remember going to the old place in Whitehall, years ago, and being shown round by one of the tip-top ’tecs. | |
| [perf. Vesta Tilley] I Know My Business 🎵 I rang the bell, a footman came in tip-top livery dressed. | |
| Nothing of Importance (1988) 251: ‘You had a good time at the Army School [...]?’ ‘Tip-top time.’. | |
| diary 13 Apr. Long Carry (1970) 172: Every evening saw us sit down to a ‘tip top’ feed. | |
| Ulysses 163: How’s things? – Tiptop... Let me see. I’ll take a glass of burgundy and... let me see. | |
| Working Bullocks 163: The Boss and Billy were ‘tip-top!’. | |
| Golden 23 Oct. 1: We’ll finish our picnic with a tip top tea for three. | |
| Horse’s Mouth (1948) 13: You’ve got tip-top lawyers who could do down Magna Carta and George Washington. | |
| Picture Post 13 Nov. [ad for Cherry Blossom shoe polish] 59: Keep your brown shoes in tip-top condition with Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish. | |
| Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 27: He’s okay. He looks tip-top. Very clean-looking. | |
| Dear ‘Herm’ 22: I doubt if anyone can do tip-top therapy from a hard floor 8-10 hours a day. | |
| Scouting for Boys in Best Radio Plays (1984) 163: georgina: Strapping chaps. tiger: They are. I keep them in tip-top condition. | |
| Lucky You 218: We come all the way out here to regroup, get our weapons in tiptop shape. | |
| (con. 1960s) Untold Stories (2006) 72: ‘It’s a tip-top place,’ said Auntie Myra. ‘The surgeon looking after him is one of the first in the country.’. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 260: All restaurants here buy lots of meat from him, [...] Very good meat - the best, tiptop. |
2. snobbish.
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 294: The man, who was very wroth at being so near run over, and then addressed in such a ‘tiptop’ manner, turned to speak to the ‘gentleman.’. |
In derivatives
1. (US) in lit. use, the very highest.
| N.Y. Times 30 Sept. 1/5: No positive orders concerning its construction will be given [...] The only further remark we have to make [...] is as to the tip-topmost finishing off. | |
 | Raleigh Register (NC) 26 Aug. 3/1: The democratic barometer was rising, and [...] it rose to its highest [...] the tip-topmost point of elevation. | |
| Latrobe Bulletin (PA) 10 Sept. 5/4: Many a woman has lost her husband’s tip-topmost affection through neglecting her body. | |
| Times Herald (Olean, NY) 28 Oct. 36/4: [I]t stopped in the tip-topmost branch of the apple tree. | |
| Times-Trib. (Scranton, PA) 4 Sept. 4/2: [advert] Her eyes will sparkle when she sees herself [...] with a cute ‘Porky-pie’ hat perched on her tip-topmost curl. |
2. fig., outstanding, the best.
| St Albans Dly Messenger (VT) 22 Mar. 2/3: Now the point where [...] nerve of the tip-topmost order was displayed, was in letting the officer dress. | |
| Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 7 Sept. 2/3: Southern is considered the ‘tip-topmost’ actor on the boards. | |
| Hampshire Teleg. 16 Mar. 1/5: He was the tip-topmost athlete of his day. | |
| Buffalo Commercial (NY) 10 Oct. 7/3: In Washington the swellest possible turnouts can be hired [...] in the tip-topmost accentuation of the very latest fashion. | |
| Oakland trib. (CA) 24 Jan. 10/7: [A]ppointing a State Board of health from among the tip-topmost of California physicians. | |
| News leader (Staunton, VA) 18 Aug. 4/2: [He] is ranked with the tip-topmost humorists in the land. | |
| Guardian 22 Apr. 8/5: [T]hey have gathered all their tip-topmost British merchandise. | |
| ‘The Twelve All-Time Coolest DC Comics SUPER-VILLAINS’ on Cheeks The Toy Wonder Homepage 🌐 The Messianic Meta-Stinker [...] had so many things going right for him, conceptually, that the real shocker would have been if he hadn’t vaulted to the tip-topmost of the ‘Bat-Baddies’ hierarchy in short order. |
1. a social leader, a fashionable individual.
| Devizes & Wilts. Gaz. 29 May 2/4: He [a former boxer] was in fact a tip-topsman, and looked more like a corinthian than a commoner. His late marriage to a young lady [...] with 20,000l. has placed him above his former calling, and he has now retired from the ring. |
2. the leader of a gang of beggars.
| Kendal Mercury 14 Feb. 3/3: This fraternity [i.e. of ‘dry-land sailors’] is headed by a ‘tip-topsman,’ or skipper. |