hippie

Or hip·py

[hip-ee]

noun

1. a person, especially of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc.

hippie

/ ˈhɪpɪ /

noun

1. a variant spelling of hippy 1

Word History and Origins

Origin of hippie¹

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; hip ⁴ + -ie

Example Sentences

I let him select a new bedspread and I can still remember the hippie patchwork red velvet one he chose.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Dubbing it “the Californian Ideology,” they argued that the “new faith” blended the “freewheeling spirit of the hippies with the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies.”

Read more on Salon

Maguire and his staff are hippie idealists, wary of sullying their political mission with trivialities like record reviews.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Detractors say Saturday’s gatherings are hate marches by aging radical hippies and anarchists.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Social Studies: The Summer of Love, the country’s hippie moment, took place in 1967.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bohemian 
• flower child 
• free spirit