tiff
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Originally, a sniff, sniffing; compare Icelandic word for a smell.
Noun
tiff (plural tiffs)
- A small argument; a petty quarrel.
- 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine: A Story:
- There’s Tom, now, since this tiff with Mrs. Cat, the scoundrel plays the Grand Turk here!
- Liquor; especially, a small draught of liquor.
- Sir Walter Scott
- sipping his tiff of brandy punch.
- Sir Walter Scott
Translations
Verb
tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)
- (intransitive) To quarrel.
- Landor
- She tiffed with Tim, she ran from Ralph.
- Landor
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:squabble
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English tiffen, Old French tiffer, tifer ("to bedizen"; > Modern French attifer), from Frankish *tipfōn, *tippōn (“to decorate”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“top, tip”). Compare Dutch tippen (“to clip the points or ends of the hair”), Old Norse tippa (“point, tip”), English tip (noun), Middle High German zipfen (“to prance; skip; sashay; bob; flutter; frisk”).
Verb
tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)
- (obsolete, transitive) To deck out; to dress.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of A. Tucker to this entry?)
Etymology 3
Verb
tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)
- (British India, intransitive) To have lunch.
- 1841, The Asiatic journal and monthly register
- Besides that one to which the permanent residence was attached, Mr. Augustus had several outlaying factories, which he visited from time to time, to superintend the manufacture of his indigo; at all of these he had little bungalows, or temporary abodes, where we tiffed and passed the heat of the day.
- 1841, The Asiatic journal and monthly register
Related terms
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “tiff”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Anagrams
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɪf
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- Requests for quotations/A. Tucker
- British India English