zipper
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English
Etymology
1925, zip + -er. The trade name was registered in 1925 by B.F. Goodrich for “boots made of rubber and fabric,” claiming use of the name since June 1923. No longer a registered trademark.
Pronunciation
- (General American) enPR: zĭʹpər, IPA(key): /ˈzɪpɚ/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈzɪpə(ɹ)/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪpə(ɹ)
Noun
zipper (plural zippers)
- (chiefly US, Australia) A zip fastener.
- He got his T-shirt stuck in the zipper of his jacket.
- A pressure-sensitive plastic closure.
- (biochemistry) A leucine zipper.
- (slang) A scar on a person's body.
- 1969, Jerry Kramer, Farewell to football, page 111:
- I also competed in track and field at Idaho, and it's all because of putting the shot that I've got my long scar, my zipper, down the back of my neck.
- 1979, Don Atyeo, Blood & guts, violence in sports, page 227:
- Making the transition from high school to college teams, for instance, he could not believe the scars his new players were sporting. "So many athletes had zippers down the side of their knee, or knees; they thought nothing of it and called this or that a Band-Aid operation. […]
- (US, military, slang, dated) An air patrol carried out at dawn or dusk.
- 1949, Walter Karig, Battle Report:
- […] the usual gap between the time the last strike of the day departed and the first night hecklers arrived was closed with "zippers" — night fighters who, using day fighter tactics, proceeded to the target in daylight in time to relieve the last day blanket patrol.
- 1993, E. T. Wooldridge, Carrier Warfare in the Pacific: An Oral History Collection, page 268:
- They would handle all the night combat air patrols, the night hecklers who would go over the enemy airfields, and we formed a new little gimmick called "zippers" to help close that gap between the time the daylight strikes left the target and darkness.
- (BDSM) A string of clothes pegs or clips attached to the body and then quickly pulled off.
- (programming) A technique for arbitrarily traversing an aggregate data structure and updating its contents. See zipper (data structure).
Synonyms
- slide fastener
- zip (British), zip fastener (British)
Meronyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
zip fastener — see zip fastener
Verb
zipper (third-person singular simple present zippers, present participle zippering, simple past and past participle zippered)
- to close a zipper.
- He zippered his sweater against the cold.
- to put a zipper on an article.
- These fall jackets are zippered.
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
Verb
zipper
Conjugation
Conjugation of zipper (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | zipper | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | zippant /zi.pɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | zippé /zi.pe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | zippe /zip/ |
zippes /zip/ |
zippe /zip/ |
zippons /zi.pɔ̃/ |
zippez /zi.pe/ |
zippent /zip/ |
| imperfect | zippais /zi.pɛ/ |
zippais /zi.pɛ/ |
zippait /zi.pɛ/ |
zippions /zi.pjɔ̃/ |
zippiez /zi.pje/ |
zippaient /zi.pɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | zippai /zi.pe/ |
zippas /zi.pa/ |
zippa /zi.pa/ |
zippâmes /zi.pam/ |
zippâtes /zi.pat/ |
zippèrent /zi.pɛʁ/ | |
| future | zipperai /zi.pʁe/ |
zipperas /zi.pʁa/ |
zippera /zi.pʁa/ |
zipperons /zi.pʁɔ̃/ |
zipperez /zi.pʁe/ |
zipperont /zi.pʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | zipperais /zi.pʁɛ/ |
zipperais /zi.pʁɛ/ |
zipperait /zi.pʁɛ/ |
zipperions /zi.pə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
zipperiez /zi.pə.ʁje/ |
zipperaient /zi.pʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | zippe /zip/ |
zippes /zip/ |
zippe /zip/ |
zippions /zi.pjɔ̃/ |
zippiez /zi.pje/ |
zippent /zip/ |
| imperfect2 | zippasse /zi.pas/ |
zippasses /zi.pas/ |
zippât /zi.pa/ |
zippassions /zi.pa.sjɔ̃/ |
zippassiez /zi.pa.sje/ |
zippassent /zi.pas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | zippe /zip/ |
— | zippons /zi.pɔ̃/ |
zippez /zi.pe/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
Further reading
- “zipper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.