Nippy

See also: nippy

English

Alternative forms

• nippy

Etymology

From nippy (“speedy”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪpi

Noun

Nippy (plural Nippies or Nippys)

1. (UK, historical) A waitress in a Lyons Corner House.
   • 1927, Dorothy Sayers, Unnatural Death‎^[1]:

     He reached across to the breakfast-table for the Daily Yell which was propped against the marmalade jar, and read with pursed lips a paragraph whose heavily leaded headlines had caught his eye, just before the interruption of the kipper episode.
     “Nippy” Found Dead in Epping Forest
     […]
     “Did the landlady mention where Bertha Gotobed was employed?”
     “Yes⁠—she was a waitress at the Corner House. […]”

   • 2012, Judith Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London, page 195:

     It was the task of the Lyons' waitress, the Nippy, groomed and trained by the management to be an efficient public servant, to mediate between patrons and the establishment as well as between different classes and tastes […]

   • 2014, Paul Chrystal, Tea: A Very British Beverage:

     The Nippy became a national icon, symbolic of the girl next door, always approachable and proper; […]