d.1704. Brown, Works, ii. 186. I hear you kept the poor titmouse under such slavish subjection, that a peer of the realm . . . could not . . . come . . . to be brother-sterling with you.
Titter, subs. (Old Cant).—A girl
(Grose): cf. tit. [Hotten:
'a tramp's term.']
1887. Henley, Villon's Good Night. You flymy titters full of flam.
Titter-tatter, subs. phr.
(Grose).—'One reeling and
ready to fall at the least touch:
also the childish amusement of
riding upon the two ends of a
plank, poised upon the prop
underneath its centre; called
also a see-saw.'
Tittle-goose, subs. (common).—A
foolish blab.
Tittle-tattle, subs. phr. (old).—1.
Chatter; scandal; 'foolish
impertinent talk' (B. E.);
'women's talk' (Grose); and (2)
a chatterbox, a gossip. As verb. = to
gossip. Hence tittle-tattler
and tittle-tattling.
Also proverbial saying, 'Tittle
tattle, give the goose more hay.'
d.1529. Skelton [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, ii. 292. 2]. I played with him [Philip Sparow] tittel tattel And fed him with my spattell.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, ii. You are full in your tittle-tattlings of Cupid.
1592. Lyly, Midas, iii. 2. O, sir, you know I am a barber, and cannot tittle tattle, I am one of those whose tongues are sweld in silence.
1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, iv. 4. You must be tittle tattling before all our guests.
1616. Times' Whistle [E. E. T. S.], 103. Dame Polupragma, gossip Tittle-tattle Suffers her tongue let loose at randome, prattle.
1633. Brome, Antipodes, i. 6. The men do all the tittle-tattle duties.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, i. 113. The parchment whereon he wrote the tittle-tattle of two young mangy whores.
1675. Cotton, Burlesque on Burlesque (1770), 177. Come, come, I cannot stay to prattle, Nor hear thy idle Tittle-Tattle.
d.1704. Brown, Works, ii. 180. The merry subject of every tavern tittle-tattle.
1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., i. v. 9. For if bifarious Tittle Tattle, Could storm a Town, or win a Battel.
1709-11. Addison, Tatler, 157. Impertinent Tittletattles who have no other variety in their discourse but that of talking slower or faster.
d.1770. Chatterton, Resignation. The daily tittle-tattle of the court.
1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 4. I had been pestered with all the tittle-tattle of the town about this fellow.
1820. Coombe, Syntax, ii. 31. The tittle-tattle town.
1890. Academy, 18 Oct., 336. Give all the facts and none of the tittle-tattle.
Tittup (or Titup), subs. (old).—1.
'A gentle hand-gallop or
canter' (Grose). Hence titupping
(or tituppy) = (1) lively,
gay, frisky; and (2) shaky,
ticklish.
c. 1704. [Ashton, Queen Anne, i. 84]. Citizens in Crowds, upon Pads, Hackneys, and Hunters; all upon the Tittup.
1818. Austen, Northanger Abbey, ix. Did you ever see such a little tituppy thing in your life? There is not a sound piece of iron about it.
1825. Scott, St Ronan's Well, xiii. It would be endless to notice . . . the 'Dear mes' and 'Oh laas' of the titupping misses, and the oaths of the pantalooned or buckskinn'd beaux.
1868-9. Browning, Ring and Book, i. 212. Walked his managed mule, Without a tittup, the procession through.
