tipsy
Americanadjective
-
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
- tipsily adverb
- tipsiness noun
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
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
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
"This is not parody. This is the actual ghost of Kathy Griffin's boxed wine loving mother saying I'm gonna get tipsy & throw my bingo cards at you! NOT A PARODY."
From Salon • Nov. 7, 2022
They were quarreling and decorating and cleaning up after big meals, tipsy from mulled wine, watching uplifting old movies.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
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.
