Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a waitress.

1925		Punch 11 Feb. 167/2: I can’t mike up me mind weyver to be a lidy’s ’elp or a ‘nippy’.
1926		Gloucester Jrnl 2 Jan. 14/5: Messrs Lyons and Co. have published a ‘Nippy’s Birthday Number.’ The title ‘Nippy’ has come to represent a certain standard of female service in a particular line of business.
1932		Derby Dly Teleg. 30 Aug. 1/5: ‘Nippy Starts Channel Swim. Eva Coleman, the Lyons Girl, enetered the water at Cap Gris Nez [...] on her first attempt to swim the Channel.
1935		Bath Chron. 19 Jan. 9/3: [advt] Nippy is coming to serve you with Early Morning Coffee, Breakfast, Lyonch, Tea or a Snack. Lyon’s Teashop.
1981		Aus. Women’s Wkly 22 July 15: The nippies are back, dishing out a proper cuppa.
1982		P. Bailey Eng. Madam 149: Guests were respectful to ‘her’ when, in the uniform of a nippy, ‘she’ waited on them.
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 213: She is dressed in black and white, a pastiche of the efficient frills of the Lyons’ nippy.
2002		(ref. 1940s) B. Morrison Things My Mother Never Told Me 108: The waitresses in Lyons Corner House – ‘nippies’ as they call them – serve cheap food.