tippler

Noun

tippler (plural tipplers)

1. (obsolete) A seller of alcoholic liquors; keeper of a tippling-house or tavern.
   • It is decrede that no tippler shall allow any unlawful games in his howse.1567, regulation, quoted in 1894, William John Monk, History of Witney, page 111
   • [...] and that expresse charge be given to every keeper of any Tavern, Inne, Cookshouse, Tobacco-house, Alehouse, or any other tipler or victualler whatsoever within your ward, [...]1641 April 13, “By the Major. The Order of the House of Commons to the Lord Major, for the due observing the Sabbath day”, in Speeches and passages of this great and happy Parliament, page 400
2. A habitual drinker; a bibber.
   • […]they had picked up two fellows in that day’s march, one of which, he said, was as fine a man as ever he saw (meaning the tippler),1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII
   • He had, in truth, drunk very little - not a fourth of the quantity which a systematic tippler could carry to church on a Sunday afternoon without a hitch in his eastings or genuflections[.]1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 47

   Synonyms:

   bibber

3. A breed of domestic pigeon bred to participate in endurance competitions.
4. (UK, railroad) An open wagon with a tipping trough, unloaded by being inverted (used for bulk cargo, especially minerals). A minecart, a lorry.
   • Ackers was working as a tippler operator. His mate, L. Beveridge, saw that Ackers had tipped a full skip and Beveridge allowed another full skip to gravitate to Acker's tippler.1955, New South Wales. Department of Mines, Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, page 44
   • A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.1960, The Iron and Coal Trades' Review - Volume 180, page 1411
5. One who works at a tipple.