nippy
/ˈnɪpi/
nippy adjective: fast; speedy. Also the alternative letter-case form of Nippy.
Adjective
nippy (comparative nippier, superlative nippiest)
- Fast; speedy.
- The jaunty 1969 crime caper about the cockney casanova of crime who pulls off a bullion heist in Turin during an England versus Italy football match using three nippy Mini Coopers—red, white and blue—speaks of a forgotten age in England[…].1999 September 10, Peter Bradshaw, “The Italian Job”, in The Guardian
- A Rolls Royce will not do if you need an economical, nippy car that is easy to park.c. 2000, Melanie Allen, Customer Relations Management, page 6
- Rather cold.
- Gosh, it's a bit nippy today: I'd better wear my gloves.
- Raj took a deep breath, and reached out to give Armitage the gentlest little stroke. “It’s nippy out. Let’s take him inside.”2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN
- Inclined to nip; bitey.
- Spoiling may create a pushy, nippy dog that lacks confidence.1995, Nancy Baer, Choosing a Dog: A Guide to Picking the Perfect Breed, page 161
- Annoying; irritating.
- Sharp in taste.
- Spicy tasting.
- Curt.
- Parsimonious.
- The quality of being made of nips.
Noun capitalized: Nippy
Nippy (plural Nippies or Nippys)
- A waitress in a Lyons Corner House.
- He reached across to the breakfast-table for the Daily Yell which was propped against the marmalade jar, and read with pursed lips a paragraph whose heavily leaded headlines had caught his eye, just before the interruption of the kipper episode.
“Nippy” Found Dead in Epping Forest
[…]
“Did the...1927, Dorothy Sayers, Unnatural Death - It was the task of the Lyons' waitress, the Nippy, groomed and trained by the management to be an efficient public servant, to mediate between patrons and the establishment as well as between different classes and tastes […]2012, Judith Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London, page 195
- He reached across to the breakfast-table for the Daily Yell which was propped against the marmalade jar, and read with pursed lips a paragraph whose heavily leaded headlines had caught his eye, just before the interruption of the kipper episode.
Also used as
nippy is also the alternative letter-case form of Nippy.
Examples of nippy in a sentence
- Small, nippy and ever present in the England set-up, the Fulham winger [Rachel Yankey] is one of the the^([sic]) most recognisable faces in the game.2011, “Women's football”, in The Guardian:
- Hertfordshire: On a nippy day in our local wood, we found a field mouse.2023 February 18, Anoushka, “Young country diary: I found a little criminal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Forms of nippy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | nippier |
| superlative | nippiest |
| Noun | |
| plural | nippies |
| plural | Nippies |
| plural | Nippys |
| alternative form | nippy |
Origin of nippy
From nip + -y.
From nippy (“speedy”).
Words formed from nippy
Words that rhyme with nippy
Questions about nippy
- What does nippy mean?
- Nippy means fast; speedy.
- How do you use nippy in a sentence?
- Small, nippy and ever present in the England set-up, the Fulham winger [Rachel Yankey] is one of the the^([sic]) most recognisable faces in the game.
- What part of speech is nippy?
- Nippy can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce nippy?
- Nippy is pronounced /ˈnɪpi/.
Words near nippy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nippy (page history and authors); Nippy (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nippy.wav.
Cite this entry: “nippy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nippy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.