1847. Bronté, Jane Eyre, xviii. 'Is there a fire in the library?' 'Yes, ma'am, but she looks such a tinkler.'
2. (common).—A bell.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xv. 'Jerk the tinkler.' These words in plain English conveyed an injunction to ring the bell.
Tinny, subs. (Old Cant).—A fire;
tinny-hunter = a thief working
at a conflagration (Grose and
Vaux).
Tinpot, subs. (naval).—An ironclad:
cf. tin-clad.
Adj. phr. (colloquial).—Generic for shoddy. Thus a tin-pot ( = poor or pretentious) game; tin-pot ( = shabby) lot; tin-pot ( = mean) company; in a tin-pot way = in poor or worthless fashion. Also (American) tin-horn.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly. I shall have information of every dodge goin', from an emperor's ambition to a tin-pot company bubble.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. They're a tin-horn lot . . . on'y fit to take their pleasure in a one-horse hearse.
Tin-tab, subs. phr. (Dulwich
College).—The carpenter's shop.
Tin Tabernacle, subs. phr.
(common).—An iron-built
church.
1898. Le Queux, Scribes and Pharisees, v. 54.
Tip, subs. (common).—1. Special
information; private knowledge.
Specifically an advice concerning
betting or a Stock-Exchange
speculation intended to benefit the
recipient: the straight tip = an
absolute cert (q.v.); in
racing = direct advice from owner
or trainer. Also (2) a horse, a
stock, etc., specially recommended
as a sound investment.
As verb = to impart exclusive
information. Hence tipster
(see quot. 1874): also tipper.
'That's the tip' = 'That's the
right thing'; to miss one's tip = to
fail.
1567. Harman, Caveat [E. E. T. S.], 20. [Harman speaks of having coaxed his friends the beggars, and thus] attained to the typ.
1842. Quarterly Review, clxiii. 175. It should be the first duty of consuls to keep the Foreign Office promptly supplied with every commercial tip that can be of use to British trade.
1869. Byron, Not Such a Fool, etc. [French], 8. Mr Topham Sawyer missed his own tip as well as his victim's, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.
1874. Henry Sampson [Slang Dict. (Hotten), s.v. Tipster]. A 'turf' agent who collects early and generally special information of the condition and racing capabilities of horses in the training districts, and posts the same to his subscribers to guide their betting. There are, whatever non-racing men may think, many 'touts' whose information is valuable to even the 'best-informed' writers.
1881. A. C. Grant, Bush Life, ii. 33. He was a real good fellow, and would give them the straight tip.
1885. Field, 3 Oct. Storm Light was a great tip for the Snailwell Stakes.
1885. Ev. Standard, 3 Oct. The late Mr Segrott, who carried on the business of tipster and sausage making, was the last year's winner of this plate.
1890. Nineteenth Century, xxvi. 846. The crowd of touts and tipsters whose advertisements fill up the columns of the sporting press.
1891. Gould, Double Event, 173. That's the rummiest tip I ever got.
1898. Gould, Landed at Last, iv. Tucka-Tucka's the place to breed good horses, take my tip for it.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 30. So, take my tip and close your features now. Ibid., 41. For the landlord had the pip, and required a first-rate tip. Ibid., 65. I rumbled the tip as a matter of course.
