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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

Tippin\' forties

English answer:

drinking forty ounce bottles of liquor

Added to glossary by Elvana Moore
Sep 16, 2009 09:43
15 yrs ago
English term

Tippin' forties

English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
I am sorry but I don't have any context. It is just this on its own.
Responses
4 +5 drinking forty ounce bottles of liquor
5 -1 Nealy 40 years old

Discussion

Elvana Moore (asker) Sep 16, 2009:
The text is various strings for an online game with cowboys. "Tippin' forties" is in a string on its own and the previous text is unrelated (back, forward, ON, OFF, etc.). From some of the comments to Mark's very helpful answer it seems to be US English.
Sheila Wilson Sep 16, 2009:
Come on ... you must have some context! What sort of document is it in - a spoken account, a letter, ...?
What things does the text cover?
What are the sentences before and after?
Is it (probably) UK English or other?
Sherin Khullar (X) Sep 16, 2009:
But it must appear within a broader text, surely...

Responses

+5
11 mins
Selected

drinking forty ounce bottles of liquor

Peer comment(s):
agree Carmen Schultz : yes, apparently gangster rappers use this expression in their lyrics
3 mins
Yo!
agree Rolf Keiser : must it be liquor?/how about beer or wine (in litre bottles)?
19 mins
as opposed to what?// 40 US ounces = 1.2 litres
agree Henry Whittlesey Schroeder : yes, in New York we called large 40 oz bottles of malt liquor 40s/forties, but we did not say "tippin" as far as I can remember. // I wasn't a gangsta rapper. Did you used to say "let's tip a forty"?
42 mins
I imagine your memory might be a bit hazy?// Being in the UK, I was more of a "knock back a few pints" kind of student.
agree Yasutomo Kanazawa
1 hr
agree Jim Tucker (X) : Yes - also a little googling seems to support this. (Probably beer rather than hard liquor.)
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks Mark!"
-1
3 hrs

Nealy 40 years old

In England It means drinking 40 oz beers... but here it means..

Nealy 40 years old

When someone is tipping forties they are close to turning 40 years old.

On the tip of, on the verge of, about to tip over the mark of 40 in your life

It is a very very common saying... Esp among women when they get to 36 - 39..

http://books.google.com/books?id=l4fHNITVwvQC&pg=PA179&lpg=P...
Peer comment(s):
neutral Mark Nathan : Hi Gary - yes, but isn't the expression "tipping forty" (singular).
38 mins
forties from 40 - 49, fifties 50 - 59, sixties 60 - 69
neutral Jim Tucker (X) : "pushing forty" ; if there's a "tipping" in that google books link I missed it.
1 hr
it is saying if you are close to 40, (The lady in the article is 35) it is when you are in the most danger of ....
disagree Cilian O'Tuama : s.o. // sorry, it's a German abbreviation (got languages mixed up). It means "see above", i.e. see Mark's and Jim's objections. Some (self included) see a CL5 answer as a challenge to peers to find a weakness. Modesty is often a better policy.
1 hr
S.O. ?
neutral Angela Dickson (X) : your reference doesn't support what you say, and we don't measure drinks in ounces here.
1 hr
But the glasses have 40oz as a carryover from the past, Here they are called a middie
Something went wrong...
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