tittup

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Probably imitative.

Noun

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tittup (plural tittups)

  1. A caper, or canter.

Verb

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tittup (third-person singular simple present tittups, present participle tittupping or tittuping, simple past and past participle tittupped or tittuped)

  1. (intransitive) To prance or frolic; of a horse, to canter easily.
    • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 186:
      I felt a fool and was much relieved when I saw the back of Mr Bellerby as he tit-tupped away to Cowslake Manor after pressing me to accept a cheroot about eight inches long out of a crocodile-skin case.
    • 1955, Patrick White, chapter 18, in The Tree of Man[1], New York: Viking, page 333:
      After this he began to go outside [the pub], many coats and yellow, thin overcoats opening willingly for him to pass, until he was out, or his legs had carried him there. He was tittuping.
    • 1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, New York: Berkley, Book 3, Chapter 25, p. 424,[2]
      There were urbane abbots, titupping along on ambling palfreys, in furred hoods which were against the rules of their orders,

Derived terms

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