chippy
/ˈt͡ʃɪpi/
chippy noun: a carpenter.
Noun
chippy (plural chippies)
- A carpenter.
- Then, when ah wis apprenticed as a chippy wi a Gorgie builder, ah goes along tae Telford College tae dae ma national certificate modules in joinery.1993, Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, Times Film School, page 36
- A prostitute or promiscuous woman.
- I manage to pick up a living in spite of the damn chippies. I don't see why the hell they don't go into the business regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free.a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise
- Don't worry chippy, nobodys gonna hurtya. Maybe fuckya a little[…]1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 52
- A fish-and-chip shop.
- Huge queues form outside the Chippy, often stretching back to the Coop and beyond.2008, Patrick Naughton, chapter I, in Whistle Wood, Land of the Fathers, →ISBN, page 33
- Albert was flabbergasted. Yer really buyin′ a chippy?” Tom smiled whilst nodding his head. “That′s me plan.”2009, John Wise, chapter 12, in Sweet Dreams, →ISBN, page 308
- Synonyms:
- chipper
- The youngest member of a team or group, normally someone whose voice has not yet deepened, talking like a chipmunk.
- A potato chip.
- why fish? for food so we can have it in our chippies2001 February 17, Ben Scott, “fish”, in free.uk.internet.isp.blueyonder.poor-service (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Apr 2026
- A chiptune.
- A chipping sparrow.
- In due time a nest-full of little chippies appear to be nourished with insectiverous^([sic]) food from a parental beak until fledged and able to look after themselves.1902, Henry Harrison Metcalf, John Norris McClintock, The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire magazine devoted to history, biography, literature, and state progress, volume 32, page 385
- Surely no young chippy was ever so stout and so emphatic as this bird.
The funny part of it all is that the starling appears to make the chippies do whatever it pleases.1908, Alice Lounsberry, chapter I, in The Garden Book for Young People, page 139
- An occasional drug habit, less than addiction.
Adjective
chippy (comparative chippier, superlative chippiest)
- Ill-tempered, disagreeable.
- To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, / In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock, / Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, / From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, act I
- There was something so irksome about Barry Groom that he had a fascination: you longed for him to annoy you again. He was incredibly chippy, was that the thing?—all his longings came out as a kind of disdain for what he longed for.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN
- Involving violence or unfair play.
- The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns and University of Saskatchewan Huskies battled to a 1-1 draw in a chippy Canada West men’s soccer affair that saw the teams combine for 33 fouls and five yellow cards.2007, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, cisport.ca
- Tending to form chips when cut, rather than larger, more usable pieces of wood.
- As dry as a chip of wood.
- Feeling sick from drinking alcohol; hungover.
Verb
chippy (third-person singular simple present chippies, present participle chippying, simple past and past participle chippied)
- To take drugs (especially heroin) on an occasional basis, rather than as an addict.
- I chippy around but haven't been hooked in a year now.1952 March 5, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 104
- The heroin user in the United States typically "chippies" for some time before becoming a regular user.1974, Eric Josephson, Eleanor Elizabeth Carroll, Columbia University. School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine, Drug use: epidemiological and sociological approaches (page 110)
Examples of chippy in a sentence
- I give the pictures of the husband and the chippy to the wife.2004, William Lashner, chapter I, in Fatal Flaw, →ISBN, page 280:
- How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it spend the winter?1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 88:
- For the most part, the players who are "chippying" with heroin think that they have their heroin use under control […]2009, Erich Goode, Marijuana, page 86:
Synonyms of chippy
Forms of chippy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | chippies |
| alternative form | chippie |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | chippier |
| superlative | chippiest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | chippies |
| present participle | chippying |
| past participle | chippied |
| past | chippied |
Origin of chippy
From chip + -y.
Words formed from chippy
- chippy-chaser
- chippy joint
- chippy sauce
- chippy tea
- chippiness
Phrases with chippy
Words that rhyme with chippy
Questions about chippy
- What does chippy mean?
- Chippy means a carpenter.
- How do you use chippy in a sentence?
- I give the pictures of the husband and the chippy to the wife.
- What part of speech is chippy?
- Chippy can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce chippy?
- Chippy is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪpi/.
- What is the plural of chippy?
- The plural of chippy is chippies.
Words near chippy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chippy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 chippy.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chippy.wav.
Cite this entry: “chippy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chippy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.