chippy
adj.— «“The boys did get a little chippy” in Thursday night’s game, said North head coach Frank Anzalone. “We just don’t want to see the boys dropping our gloves and fighting and an American sports festival. There is no fighting here. We don’t tolerate it.”» —“North looks toward gold in ice hockey” by Chet Kaufman Baton Rouge State Times (La.) Aug. 2, 1985. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski insists that the names of modern Olympic sports resulted from changing one letter in the original names for each activity. For example, he says, the pole vault must have originated from an earlier sport in which participants...