dippy

dip +‎ -y

• Rhymes: -ɪpi

dippy (comparative dippier, superlative dippiest)

1. (informal) Lacking common sense.
   • 1957, Neville Shute, On the Beach, New York: William Morrow, Chapter 2,

     “He’s dippy,” she informed him. “Absolutely mad. He’ll wreck your ship for you.”

   • 2001, Peter Bradshaw, Review of Legally Blonde, The Guardian, 26 October, 2001,

     This so-so comedy has Witherspoon as the dippy-yet-smart sorority girl whose ambitious Wasp boyfriend dumps her because she’s a natural blonde, and he’s looking to marry “Jackie not Marilyn”; so she gets a place in his class at Harvard law school to win him back.

2. (informal) Having romantic feelings for; excited or enthusiastic about.
   • 1912, Clara E. Laughlin, The Penny Philanthropist, New York: Fleming H. Revell, Chapter 4, p. 41,

     “I’ve read in the papers that ye’re dippy about secon’-hand stuff,” she teased, referring to his mania for antiques […]

   • 1949, P. G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season, London: Herbert Jenkins, Chapter 16, p. 145,

     ‘ […] If you’re dippy about a girl, and another fellow has grabbed her, it can’t be pleasant to sit at a writing table, probably with a rotten pen, sweating away while the other fellow dictates “My own comma precious darling period I worship you comma I adore you period How I wish comma my dearest comma that I could press you to my bosom and cover your lovely face with burning kisses exclamation mark”. […] ’

3. (Britain, informal) Of an egg: cooked so that the yolk remains runny and can be used for dipping.
   • 2004, Bernadette Strachan, The Reluctant Landlady, London: Hodder & Stoughton, Chapter 20, p. 230,

     The flat was his domain until ten a.m., he informed her brusquely. He liked reading the paper and partaking of a dippy egg in solitude.

• (lacking common sense): dotty

• hippy-dippy