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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

HIPPIN, n. Also hipping, hippen. [′hɪpən]

1. A baby's napkin (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Gen.Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial. Comb. hippen-towie, a clothes line for these.Rxb. 1731 Melrose Parish Reg. (S.R.S.) 179:
The child had a day and night busken with it, some hippings, but no writ.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 12:
Then the first hippen to the green was flung, And unko' words thereat baith said an' sung.Rxb. 1808 A. Scott Poems 193:
To duds an' tatters torn, For hippin clouts.Dmf. 1824 Carlyle in Froude Early Life (1882) I. 256:
He speculates on the progressive development of his senses, on the state of his bowels, on his hours of rest, his pap-spoons, and his hippings.Clc. 1852 G. P. Boyd Misc. Poems 24:
Seeing bit lassies, Whase hippens ye but lately scour'd, Crawin' in your places.Gsw. 1860 J. Young Poorhouse Lays 18:
As yellow's a hippen or ill-wishen sark.Gall. 1901 Trotter Gall. Gossip 16:
Busy weshin dirty hippens in the gran Punch-Bowl.Kcd. 1934 L. G. Gibbon Grey Granite iii. 204:
Ake had told him . . . not to talk wet, they were both of them out of their hippens by now.Ags. 1945 Scots Mag. (April) 39:
Fa keeps me eident weyvin' 'oo An' nearly wud wi' wark to do The tub an' hippen-towie fu'.Ork. 1995 Orcadian 2 Feb 15:
He recalled the morning after the gas companies were nationalised, a day so distant that I had still been wearing hippens. Abd. 1996 Norman Harper and Robbie Shepherd Anither Dash O' Doric 78:
'... mony's the time, fin yer mither wisna aboot, that I gied ye yer bath and changed yer hippens and dichtit yer erse.' Abd. 1998 Sheena Blackhall The Bonsai Grower 19:
... Nell likit fine tae see him wi his fite powe shampooed an washed like a bairn's hippens, an his horns and hooves cleaned o glaur an iled, ...

2. Used humorously for the curtain of a penny theatre (Ayr. c.1900; ‡Gsw., Ayr. 1957). Also in Nhb. dial. Rnf. 1810 A. Wilson Poems (1876) II. 324:
"Up wi' the hippen!" cried another chap, An' then wi' feet and hands began to rap.