Meaning of tippy-tap | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A step that makes a clicking sound.
2. A light and rapid tap
3. A gourd or small jerry can filled with water and attached to a piece of wood at ground level, such that stepping on the wood tips the gourd or can to release a stream of water through a small hole.

Examples

“[…] she trots through the halls of her mansion jiggling in her frilly dresses and making tippy-taps with her high heels.”

“But it was not to be, as Armbro Romance exploded out of the pocket and with a couple of tippy-taps from Campbell, the filly crossed the wire in an unreal 1:49.4, with Galleria a well-beaten second.”

“Happily The Delaunay is a few tippy-taps away and lobster roll has joined the menu.”

“I spent a good half hour trying to trap him between a sensible midsize family sedan and the lawnmower; I tried to lure him with treats; I played dead on the garage floor to see if he’d try to eat me. But he was wily and quicker on his tippy-taps than I expected.”

““I love my dog, there are several things I do to manage the dander and allergens to ensure she stays with me. When she greets me at the front door after a long day at work with a wagging tail and excited tippy taps it makes it all worth it”— Liz Wallace”

“A wave of happiness is inevitable when you hear her dainty little tippy-taps as she makes her rounds around the back-of-house and says “hello” to staff with her big brown eyes and sweeping tail wags.”

“He announced himself with tippy-taps across tile floors, scratched the bedroom and office doors when it was time to move along, huffed at all the trips he had to take up and down the stairs to keep watch over me and hovered hopefully anytime my husband was in the kitchen.”

“In the passenger seat, Ridley bounced in place like a dog doing tippy-taps.”

“This husky mix is as regal as her name – she’s also known as the queen of fetch, the countess of cuteness and the duchess of doggy dancing (she does tippy-taps when eagerly awaiting a treat or game of fetch).”

“Why do TV news anchors always do that thing at the end of the show when they gather their papers in a neat pile, stand them on end and give them a little double tippy-tap?”

“The rapid tippy-tap of his neighbor’s snare drum sounded, and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” began.”

“Then it’s the viola and sarangi title track, which is quite lovely, and the Barbie-oriental “Buddha of Compassion”, which travels on a dated ambient/big-beat TV-ad chassis. Only fools like me find themselves longing for the motorised tippy-tap of Jaki Liebezeit.”

“However, there is a wall clock directly above me, one of those with the sweeping second hand, a ticking guillotine to accompany the tippy-tap of the keyboard to feed another monster, the empty screen.”

“Based in San Luis Obispo, Lifewater focuses all its efforts on the countries of Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, teaching people how to make water safer by building latrines and tippy-taps, a simple gadget used to wash hands with running water.”

“After Peter’s attendance at a Peace Corps sponsored leadership camp, where the kids were taught how to build tippy-taps for hand washing, Peter was so energized when he returned to school that he formed a group, taught them about hygiene, and built six tippy-taps around the school.”

“Some of the advantages of tippy-taps are as follows: it is easy to construct, it utilises very little water; it is easier to use and only soap is touched, thereby making hand washing very hygienic because it avoids contamination of the jerry can, unlike the real tap (Biran, 2011) (see Figure 2.2.).”

CEFR level