TIPSY (tipsier, tipsiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: tipsier    , tipsiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tipsy mean? 

• TIPSY (adjective)
  The adjective TIPSY has 2 senses:

1. slightly intoxicated

2. unstable and prone to tip as if intoxicated

  Familiarity information: TIPSY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIPSY (adjective)

Comparative: tipsier   
Superlative: tipsiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Slightly intoxicated

Synonyms:

potty; tiddly; tipsy

Similar:

drunk; gone; inebriated; intoxicated; ripped (stupefied or excited by a chemical substance (especially alcohol))

Derivation:

tipsiness (a temporary state resulting from excessive consumption of alcohol)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unstable and prone to tip as if intoxicated

Context example:

a tipsy boat

Similar:

unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)

 Context examples 

But they were not only tipsy; it was plain that they were furiously angry.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The keeper of this bookstall, who lived in a little house behind it, used to get tipsy every night, and to be violently scolded by his wife every morning.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He had plenty of money, but didn't know how to spend it, and got tipsy and gambled, and ran away, and forged his father's name, I believe, and was altogether horrid.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Demi's miracle of mechanical skill, though the cover wouldn't shut, Rob's footstool had a wiggle in its uneven legs that she declared was soothing, and no page of the costly book Amy's child gave her was so fair as that on which appeared in tipsy capitals, the words—To dear Grandma, from her little Beth.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We were at a particularly tipsy table. That was my fault—Gatsby had been called to the phone and I'd enjoyed these same people only two weeks before. But what had amused me then turned septic on the air now.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)