tipsy
Americanadjective
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slightly intoxicated or drunk.
-
characterized by or due to intoxication.
a tipsy lurch.
-
tipping, unsteady, or tilted, as if from intoxication.
adjective
-
slightly drunk
-
slightly tilted or tipped; askew
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tipsy
1570–80; tip 2 or obsolete tip strong drink (perhaps back formation from tipple 1 ) + -sy. Compare obsolete bumpsy in same sense
Explanation
Use tipsy to describe a person who's just slightly drunk. If you've ever been to a wedding reception, you've probably seen a tipsy person. Your aunt who gets a little tipsy on New Year's Eve might giggle more than usual, for example. You can also describe an inanimate object as tipsy, if it's wobbly or unstable, or even a little crooked. Tipsy comes from tip and its meaning of "slope or overturn." The old-fashioned verb tipple, to drink alcohol, came later. In the 1800's, a "tipsy cake" was one soaked in alcohol.
Vocabulary lists containing tipsy
With the Fire on High
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Zeitoun
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We Are the Ants
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This is a comic epic of bursting balloons and black eyes, tipsy aunts and tottering uncles, an errant mouse and driving snows.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
It’s as if he’s saying to us and all the tipsy ladies in the audience: Check this out — LOL, right?
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025
Yes, Jacklyn’s all smiles and compliments until a tipsy Laurie retires, giving the others some one-on-one time.
From Salon • Mar. 10, 2025
The veteran wine taster managed to avoid feeling tipsy by only drinking small sips or sometimes not swallowing the wine at all.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2024
Some days, when she walked, she would feel tipsy, swaying side to side, needing to rest against walls as if struck by vertigo.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
