As it is only the airflow along the chord that contributes to lift, this means that the wing begins to develop less lift at the tip than the root. in extreme cases, this can lead to the wingtip entering stall long before the wing as a whole. In this case the average lift of the wing as a whole moves forward; the inboard sections are continuing to generate lift and are generally in front of the center of gravity (CoG), while the tips are no longer contributing and are behind the CoG. This produces a strong nose-up pitch in the aircraft, which can lead to more of the wing stalling, the lift moving further forward, and so forth. This chain reaction is considered very dangerous and was known as the pitch-up.

Tip stall can be prevented in a number of ways, at least one of which is found on almost all modern aircraft. An early solution was the addition of wing fences to re-direct sideways moving air back towards the rear of the wing. A similar solution is the dog-tooth notch seen on some aircraft, like the Avro Arrow. A more common modern solution is to use some degree of washout.