dippy

dip +‎ -y

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪpi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpi

dippy (comparative dippier, superlative dippiest)

1. (informal) Lacking common sense.
   • 1922, “Beautify Gillette”, in The Republican‎, volume 1, number 22, page 1:

     If a person were to wash only one side of his face and continually neglect the other side, he would soon become a local curiosity–would be considered dippy.

   • 1957, Neville Shute, chapter 2, in On the Beach‎, New York: William Morrow:

     “He’s dippy,” she informed him. “Absolutely mad. He’ll wreck your ship for you.”

   • 2001, Peter Bradshaw, Review of Legally Blonde, The Guardian, 26 October, 2001,

     This so-so comedy has Witherspoon as the dippy-yet-smart sorority girl whose ambitious Wasp boyfriend dumps her because she’s a natural blonde, and he’s looking to marry “Jackie not Marilyn”; so she gets a place in his class at Harvard law school to win him back.

2. (informal) Having romantic feelings for; excited or enthusiastic about.
   • 1912, Clara E. Laughlin, chapter 4, in The Penny Philanthropist‎, New York: Fleming H. Revell, page 41:

     “I’ve read in the papers that ye’re dippy about secon’-hand stuff,” she teased, referring to his mania for antiques […]

   • 1949, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 16, in The Mating Season, London: Herbert Jenkins, page 145:

     ‘ […] If you’re dippy about a girl, and another fellow has grabbed her, it can’t be pleasant to sit at a writing table, probably with a rotten pen, sweating away while the other fellow dictates “My own comma precious darling period I worship you comma I adore you period How I wish comma my dearest comma that I could press you to my bosom and cover your lovely face with burning kisses exclamation mark”. […] ’

3. (UK, informal) Of an egg: cooked so that the yolk remains runny and can be used for dipping.
   • 2004, Bernadette Strachan, chapter 20, in The Reluctant Landlady‎, London: Hodder & Stoughton, page 230:

     The flat was his domain until ten a.m., he informed her brusquely. He liked reading the paper and partaking of a dippy egg in solitude.

4. (informal) Involving or suited to dipping.
   • 2001, Janet Mason Tarlov, The Everything Baby's First Food Book, page 257:

     Also, salad dressing makes a great dippy sauce. Avoid low-fat salad dressings, which are usually loaded with fillers, sugar, and sodium.

• (lacking common sense): dotty

• hippy-dippy