tippy, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tippy n.

1. as the tippy, the height of fashion.

1781		‘Hobbies of the Times’ in Bullfinch 214: Length of fork is all the tippy / Length of waist is all a twaddle.
c.1785		‘The Dog and Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 80: How sweet is the life of a Kiddy, [...] To be call’d by the knowing ones the Tippi.
1790		Norfolk Chron. 3 July 4/2: The beaver-hat is now quite the tippy among the fair.
1791		Covent Garden n.p.: [pic. caption] Tippy Bob – the Natty Crop. This young gent ‘quite the tippy’.
c.1805		‘The Wig Gallery’ Jovial Songster 30: Be of the ton a natty sprig, / The thing, the tippy, and the twig.
1815		‘The irishman’s Theatrical Description’ in Vocal Mag. 2 Jan. 34: And the ladies in the boxes, from the duchess to the doxies, would be saying [...] he’s quite the tippy, and the dandy .
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 70: [note] Indeed this Bandbox sort of creature took so much the lead in the walks of fashion, that the Buck was totally missing; the Blood vanished; the Tippy not to be found; the Go out of date; the Dash not to be met with.
c.1830		‘Unfortunate Billy’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 267: He thought himself the tippy / He was the rolling kiddy.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 18: For the production of a curl, he was the tippy, the go, the non-such.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 33: Tippy, the – just the thing, as it ought to be.
1838		C. Selby Jacques Strop II i: Isn’t that the tippy? don’t I keep it up like a double distilled gentleman, eh?
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 290: The lay down collar and opera tie on are quite the ‘tippy.’.

2. thus a dandy or a smart young woman.

1792		Sporting Mag. Dec. I 118/1: I am, Gentlemen, Your and the Public’s Servant, Tippy.
1798		Monthly Mag. and British Register VI 173/1: His dress [...] will be, elegant; exhibiting no articles of apparel but such as are ‘All the rage’, he is ‘Quite the tippy’ .
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 156: Gals that could pull an even yoke with any of your York tippies in the way of beauty.

In compounds

tippybob (n.)

1. a dandy; also used adv.; thus teasing tippybobship.

1791		W. Reeve ‘Tippy Bob’ song in Bluebeard [pantomime] My name is Tippy Bob / With a watch in each fob / I am sure I’m the thing.
1799		Sporting Mag. Apr. XIV 26/1: About eleven the sports commenced with a poney race [...] Seven started [...] Mr. Ellison’s ches.[tnut] Tippy Bob.
1817		Vermont Intelligencer 5 May 4/1: Their tippybobships deal / In grindstones, gauze and grocery.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 172: Tippy-bob [...] might be every thing in the eye of some pretty woman, if his egotism and self-love did not conspire to render him a no-thing at all sort of chap.
1834		Westmorland Gaz. 4 Jan. 3/3: The coves of the ‘swell mob’ were on the qui vive [...] Many names were bruited abroad [...] John Rigg, John Tibs, and Tippy Bob.
1841		Leeds Intelligencer 10 July 8/5: He was smiling and smirking, and drest ‘tippy bob’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US) by ext., a derog. name for a member of the social élite.

1877

Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 707: Tippybobs. A contemptuous term for the wealthy classes.