# tip

Pronunciation: say "TIP" /tɪp/

## Noun

1. A piece of advice, especially a practical suggestion for doing something more effectively.
   - Simple: A small piece of helpful advice about how to do something.
   - _The article offers tips for saving money on groceries._
   - _Her best tip for new gardeners is to start small._
2. The pointed, narrow, or extreme end of something long or tapering, such as a pencil, a finger, or a bow.
   - Simple: The pointed or narrow end of something, like the end of a pencil or your finger.
   - _The arrow's tip was made of hardened steel._
   - _Snow covered the tips of the mountains well into June._
3. A small amount of money given to a waiter, bartender, taxi driver, or other service worker as a token of appreciation.
   - Simple: Extra money you give to a waiter, driver, or other worker for good service.
   - _He added a twenty percent tip to the restaurant bill._
   - _Hotel housekeepers often depend on tips to supplement their wages._
5. A piece of private or insider information, especially about sporting odds, share prices, or business performance, passed on by someone with expert knowledge.
   - Simple: A piece of secret information from someone who knows something others do not.
   - _Acting on a tip from a stable hand, she backed the long shot._
   - _Police received an anonymous tip about the warehouse robbery._
10. A small piece of metal, rubber, fabric, or other material fitted onto the end of something to protect, improve, or decorate it, such as a steel toe tip or an earbud's soft tip.
   - Simple: A small cover fitted on the end of something, like a metal piece on a boot or an earbud's soft end.
   - _The bootmaker added steel tips to protect the toes from impact._
   - _The pool cue's leather tip needed replacing after years of play._
12. A prediction of how something will turn out, such as which team will win a game, including a pick made in a tipping competition. *(UK, Australia)*
   - Simple: A guess about what will happen or who will win, such as your pick for a football match.
   - _His tip that the champion would lose in the first round proved correct._
   - _The racing pages print tips for every horse race of the weekend._
14. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A place where rubbish or waste is taken to be dumped or recycled, or the heap of waste, such as spoil from a mine or quarry, that builds up there. *(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: A place where people take rubbish to be thrown away or recycled, or a big heap of waste from a mine.
   - _We loaded the trailer with garden waste and drove to the tip._
   - _Slag from the colliery built up into a huge tip above the village._
17. An act of deflecting something with the fingers, especially the fingertips.
   - Simple: A quick touch with the fingers that makes a moving ball change direction.
   - _The keeper's desperate tip sent the shot over the bar._
   - _A slight tip at the line of scrimmage altered the pass's flight._
18. An act of tilting something up or to one side.
   - Simple: A quick lean or tilt to one side.
   - _With a slight tip of her head, she signaled that it was time to leave._
   - _He acknowledged the crowd with a tip of his cap._
19. A very untidy or messy place. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A very messy place, with things lying everywhere.
   - _After three weeks of deadlines, his apartment had become a complete tip._
   - _She refused to invite anyone over while the house was such a tip._
22. A small piece of meat.
   - Simple: A little piece of meat, the kind you might cook in a stew.
   - _The diner serves sirloin tips over rice with brown gravy._
   - _She speared a pork tip from the skillet to check that it was cooked through._

## Verb

4. To give a small gratuity to someone, especially a worker who provides a service.
   - Simple: To give extra money to someone, like a waiter, for their service.
   - _Many diners tip generously around the holidays._
   - _He tipped the bellhop who carried his luggage upstairs._
6. To be or move into a tilted or sloping position, or to cause something to do so; to become or make unbalanced.
   - Simple: To lean to one side, or to make something lean.
   - _The waiter tipped the bottle to read the label on the back._
   - _The raft began to tip as everyone moved to one side._
7. To knock over or cause to overturn, or to fall down or become overturned.
   - Simple: To fall over, or to make something fall over.
   - _A sudden gust tipped the canoe, spilling both paddlers into the lake._
   - _Stack the boxes evenly so the pile doesn't tip._
8. To provide the end of something with a covering or point; to cover the very end of something.
   - Simple: To put a cover or a point on the end of something.
   - _Manufacturers tip the drill bits with tungsten carbide for cutting masonry._
   - _The fletcher tipped every arrow with a barbed head._
9. To give private or secret information to someone; to inform someone of a clue or piece of insider knowledge.
   - Simple: To secretly tell someone useful or private information.
   - _An anonymous caller tipped police to the location of the stolen car._
   - _Sources inside the studio regularly tip entertainment bloggers about casting decisions._
11. To deflect something with the fingers, especially the fingertips.
   - Simple: To touch a moving ball or other thing with your fingers so it goes a different way.
   - _The goalkeeper tipped the shot over the crossbar in the final minute._
   - _A tall defender can tip the pass away before it reaches the shooter._
13. To empty out the contents of a container by tilting it.
   - Simple: To empty something out by turning or leaning its container.
   - _He tipped the bucket of soapy water down the drain._
   - _Tip the cooked rice into a serving bowl and fluff it with a fork._
16. To dump refuse or other waste material.
   - Simple: To dump trash or other unwanted things in a place.
   - _Contractors tipped the rubble at an unlicensed site outside town._
   - _Residents may tip yard waste at the county landfill on weekends._
21. To predict that someone or something will have a particular outcome, especially success, including naming the expected winner of a game in a tipping competition. *(UK, Australia)*
   - Simple: To say who you think will win or what will happen, for example when picking winners in a football competition.
   - _Analysts tip the company to double its profits within two years._
   - _Critics had tipped the film for major awards months before its release._

## Verb

15. To strike quickly and lightly; to tap. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To hit something quickly and softly, like a small tap.
23. To drink. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To drink something.

## Noun

20. A light blow; a quick, gentle tap. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A quick, soft hit, like a small tap.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In hatmaking, the piece of stiffened lining fixed with paste inside the crown.
- (noun) A flat, thin gilder's brush of camel hair, set between pieces of card, for picking up gold leaf and laying it down.
- (verb) To spill some drink out on the ground as an offering, especially from a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor in honor of someone who has died.
- (noun) The act or an instance of toppling a pin in skittles.
- (noun) A wagon or car on rails used to move coal quickly from one place to another.
- (verb) To hand something over to someone.
- (noun) A phase someone is going through, or the way they are acting these days.
- (noun) A particular field or area of concern, as in on the political tip.

## Origin

**Meanings 2, 8, 10, 22** — From Middle English tip, typ, tippe ("tip"), related to words meaning "tip" in Frisian, Dutch, Low German, Danish, and Swedish, and to Icelandic typpi ("knob, pin").
**Meanings 6–7, 11, 13–14, 16–19, 23** — One idea is that the verb is a special use of Etymology 1. Another is that it came from a North Germanic or Scandinavian language, and Swedish tippa, "to topple over," is similar. Either way, it is recorded in Late Middle English as tippen.
**Meanings 15, 20** — No one is certain where it comes from. Perhaps it is connected with the first word tip (Etymology 1), with cognates such as Swedish tippa, German tippen and Dutch tippen.
**Meanings 3–4** — This word started out in the slang of thieves. Where it came from is not certain, but it is probably tied to sense 1.
**Meanings 1, 5, 9, 12, 21** — It most likely comes from tip meaning "to give, pass," from tip meaning "to tap," or from both together.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tip (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).