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 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.