tippler

noun

Etymology: From tipple + -er (“agent”). “Seller” sense from 1396; “drinker” sense from 1580.

1. A seller of alcoholic liquors; keeper of a tippling-house or tavern.

   “It is decrede that no tippler shall allow any unlawful games in his howse.”

   “[...] and that expresse charge be given to every keeper of any Tavern, Inne, Cookshouse, Tobacco-house, Alehouse, or any other tipler or victualler whatsoever within your ward, [...]”

2. A habitual drinker; a bibber.

   “[…]they had picked up two fellows in that day’s march, one of which, he said, was as fine a man as ever he saw (meaning the tippler),”

   “He had, in truth, drunk very little - not a fourth of the quantity which a systematic tippler could carry to church on a Sunday afternoon without a hitch in his eastings or genuflections[.]”

3. A breed of domestic pigeon bred to participate in endurance competitions.
4. An open wagon with a tipping trough, unloaded by being inverted (used for bulk cargo, especially minerals). A minecart, a lorry.

   “Ackers was working as a tippler operator. His mate, L. Beveridge, saw that Ackers had tipped a full skip and Beveridge allowed another full skip to gravitate to Acker's tippler.”

   “A shaft runround was made to conduct the empties from the tippler to the empty side of the shaft where they would rejoin the old circuit.”

5. One who works at a tipple.
6. Alternative form of tipple, a revolving frame or cage in which a truck or wagon is inverted to discharge its load.

   “Unloading is by tipplers on to a moving conveyor at the power station, which naturally involves uncoupling individual wagons.”