Word.ws English Dictionary

tippy-tap

/ˈtɪpitæp/

tippy-tap noun: a step that makes a clicking sound.

Noun

tippy-tap (plural tippy-taps)

  1. A step that makes a clicking sound.
    • […] she trots through the halls of her mansion jiggling in her frilly dresses and making tippy-taps with her high heels.1991, Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies, Picador, →ISBN, page 199, column 2
    • But it was not to be, as Armbro Romance exploded out of the pocket and with a couple of tippy-taps from Campbell, the filly crossed the wire in an unreal 1:49.4, with Galleria a well-beaten second.1998 June 30, Mark Dudek, “On the Mark: Mark Dudek At Pocono Downs”, in The Times Leader, page 4C
  2. A light and rapid tap
    • Why do TV news anchors always do that thing at the end of the show when they gather their papers in a neat pile, stand them on end and give them a little double tippy-tap?1997 May 6, Peter Stockland, “Take a seat and ponder the world”, in Calgary Herald, page A17
    • The rapid tippy-tap of his neighbor’s snare drum sounded, and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” began.1997 October 29, Barbara J. Saffir, “Music students are upbeat”, in The Osceola Sentinel (an edition of The Orlando Sentinel), page 3
  3. A gourd or small jerry can filled with water and attached to a piece of wood at ground level, such that stepping on the wood tips the gourd or can to release a stream of water through a small hole.
    • Based in San Luis Obispo, Lifewater focuses all its efforts on the countries of Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, teaching people how to make water safer by building latrines and tippy-taps, a simple gadget used to wash hands with running water.2016 August 23, Doug Thompson, “Couple teach clean water importance in Ethiopia”, in Ventura County Star, page 4A
    • After Peter’s attendance at a Peace Corps sponsored leadership camp, where the kids were taught how to build tippy-taps for hand washing, Peter was so energized when he returned to school that he formed a group, taught them about hygiene, and built six tippy-taps around the school.2021, Nancy Daniel Wesson, I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Modern History Press, →ISBN, page 165

Verb

tippy-tap (third-person singular simple present tippy-taps, present participle tippy-tapping, simple past and past participle tippy-tapped)

  1. To tap dance, or imitate tap dancing.
    • But to watch Errico tippy-tap into the same scenes that Kelly used to enter in a grandly aristocratic and delicious sweep; to hear Errico and co-star Randy Graff chirp drollery that Hepburn, Kelly and Celeste Holm used to fire off like Stinger missiles (jus hearing Hepburn say “Oh, goody” made a...1998 June 4, Michael Kilian, “‘High Society II’ can’t bear original”, in The Sacramento Bee, volume 283, page F2
    • At Rainbow Park Elementary in Opa-locka, fourth graders tippy-tap in front of a wall of mirrors on a dance floor that would be the envy of most professional studios.2000 July 2, Gail Meadows, “Culture Class”, in The Miami Herald, 97th year, number 292, page 12M
  2. To tap lightly.
    • I have always envied the starch in their shirts and the clean fingers they use to tippy-tap their computers and develop weird schematics while their fake Rolex wristwatches glitter.1997 August 3, Leonard Bishop, “Things to do on my return”, in The Manhattan Mercury, Manhattan, Kan., page D3
    • He hands me one rod and grabs the person closest next to me—Wendy, in this case—and shoves the second rod in her hand as he gleefully tippy-taps his fingers on the knobs of this contraption box resting against his ample belly.2002, Ron-Luc Nickell, Send in the Cones: The Cruise Ship Letters, Austin, Tex.: 10-4 Communications Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 74

Examples of tippy-tap in a sentence

  • Happily The Delaunay is a few tippy-taps away and lobster roll has joined the menu.2012 July 18, Fay Maschler, “Five Things Fay Ate This Week”, in Evening Standard, page 30:
  • But he was wily and quicker on his tippy-taps than I expected.2019 December 20, Kayla Schmidt, “The young people of ND want change”, in The Bismarck Tribune, volume 145, number 354, page A10:
  • A wave of happiness is inevitable when you hear her dainty little tippy-taps as she makes her rounds around the back-of-house and says “hello” to staff with her big brown eyes and sweeping tail wags.2021 fall, Lindsey Cook, “Meet Emma!: Chief Happiness Officer”, in TIVOL, page 83:
  • In the passenger seat, Ridley bounced in place like a dog doing tippy-taps.2023, James L. Sutter, chapter 19, in Darkhearts, Andersen Press, →ISBN:

Forms of tippy-tap

Noun
pluraltippy-taps
alternative formtippy tap
Verb
third-person singular presenttippy-taps
present participletippy-tapping
past participletippy-tapped
pasttippy-tapped

Questions about tippy-tap

What does tippy-tap mean?
Tippy-tap means a step that makes a clicking sound.
How do you use tippy-tap in a sentence?
Happily The Delaunay is a few tippy-taps away and lobster roll has joined the menu.
What part of speech is tippy-tap?
Tippy-tap can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tippy-tap?
Tippy-tap is pronounced /ˈtɪpitæp/.
What is the plural of tippy-tap?
The plural of tippy-tap is tippy-taps.

Words near tippy-tap in the dictionary

  1. tippy
  2. tippy tap
  3. tippy taps
  4. tippy top
  5. tippy tops
  6. tippy-tap
  7. tippy-tapped
  8. tippy-tapping
  9. tippy-tappy
  10. tippy-taps
  11. tippy-toe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tippy-tap (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-tippy-tap.wav.

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