Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as tepee.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of teepee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Native American tent; usually of conical shape

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See teepee.

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Examples

  • Out before my tipi was the old singer, waving his arms and bawling:

    Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

  • Out before my tipi was the old singer, waving his arms and bawling:

    Flashman and The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • Out before my tipi was the old singer, waving his arms and bawling:

    Flashman And The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • They considered this a fair trade, for to Our People the tipi was the center of life.

    Centennial Michener, James 1974

  • Not just a home, the tipi was the center of social and ceremonial life.

    ABC News: Top Stories 2011

  • Ute Jack, who had taken refuge in a tipi on the Shoshone reservation at Fort Washakie and was betrayed by an army spy, was that target.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • Later, with the coming of the horse, the portable tipi better suited the swiftly moving tribes that flowed across the landscape like the meltwater from winter snows.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • This may be the area a mile west of Bird Cloud where scores of tipi rings are still visible, one notably smaller than the others.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • Normally he would have to stay in his tipi overnight to commune with the ancestral spirits but since he never lived in a tipi, we can go right to the burial.

    Dakota Roger Weaver 2011

  • Indians used the younger, slenderest trees as tipi and travois poles.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

Comments

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  • A tipi (also teepee, tepee) is a conical tent originally made of animal skins or birch bark and popularized by the Native Americans of the Great Plains. Tipis are stereotypically associated with Native Americans in general, but Native Americans from places other than the Great Plains used different types of dwellings. The term wigwam is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to a dwelling of this type.

    The tipi was durable, provided warmth and comfort in winter, was dry during heavy rains, and was cool in the heat of summer. Tipis could be disassembled and packed away quickly when a tribe decided to move, and could be reconstructed quickly when the tribe settled in a new area. This portability was important to those Plains Indians who had a nomadic lifestyle.

    The word "tipi" comes into English from the Lakota language; the word thípi consists of two elements: the verb thí, meaning "to dwell," and a pluralizing enclitic (a suffix-like ending that marks the subject of the verb as plural), pi, and means "they dwell." In Lakota, formal verbs can be used as nouns, and this is the case with thípi, which in practice just means "house."

    _Wikipedia

    February 4, 2008