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zipper

 - 6 dictionary results
Zipper
Zipper Online. Shop Target.com.
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zip⋅per

  [zip-er]
Use zipper in a Sentence
–noun
1. Also called slide fastener. a device used for fastening clothing, valises, etc., consisting of two toothed tracks or spiral metal or plastic coils, each bordering one of two edges to be joined, and a piece that either interlocks or separates them when pulled.
2. a person or thing that zips.
3. a rubber and fabric boot or overshoe fastened up the leg by a zipper.
4. a large illuminated display of news bulletins or advertisements that rapidly and continously flash by on an upper part of a building.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
5. zip 2 .
Origin:
1920–25, Americanism; formerly a trademark; see zip 1 , -er 1

Related forms:
zip⋅per⋅less, adjective
Zipper
Zipper Online. Shop Target.com.
www.Target.com

zip

2  [zip] verb, zipped, zip⋅ping, noun, adjective
–verb (used with object)
1. to fasten or unfasten with a zipper: Zip your jacket. Zip open the traveling case.
2. to enclose or free by doing up or undoing a zipper: Zip this money into your wallet. Zip me out of my dress.
–verb (used without object)
3. to become fastened or unfastened by means of a zipper: a handy purse that zips shut.
4. to do up or undo a zipper.
–noun
5. a zipper.
–adjective
6. utilizing or having a zipper: a coat with a zip front.
Origin:
1935–40, Americanism; back formation from zipper

Related forms:
zipless, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To zipper
zip·per   (zĭp'ər)   
n.  A fastening device consisting of parallel rows of metal, plastic, or nylon teeth on adjacent edges of an opening that are interlocked by a sliding tab.
tr. & intr.v.   zip·pered, zip·per·ing, zip·pers
To fasten or unfasten or become fastened or unfastened with a zipper; zip.

[Originally a trademark.]
Word History: Trademark laws exist to prevent the appropriation of words like zipper. Registered in 1925, zipper was originally a B.F. Goodrich trademark for overshoes with fasteners. A Goodrich executive is said to have slid the fastener up and down on the boot and exclaimed, "Zip 'er up," echoing the sound made by this clever device. Zip already existed as both a noun and verb referring to a light sharp sound or to motion accompanied by that kind of sound (zip was first recorded as a noun in 1875; as a verb, in 1852). Both words were imitations of the sound made by a rapidly moving object. As the fastener that "zipped" came to be used in other articles, its name was used as well. B.F. Goodrich sued to protect its trademark but was allowed to retain proprietary rights only over Zipper Boots. Zipper itself had moved into the world of common nouns.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
zip

  1. n.
    nothing. : There was no mail today. Nothing. Zip.
  2. n.
    a score or grade of zero. : Well, you got zip on the last test. Sorry about that.
  3. n.
    vigor; spunk. : Put some zip into it. It's too ho-hum.
  4. in.
    to move to a place fast. : I'll zip to the office and get a new form.
  5. n.
    a worthless person; a person who amounts to zero. : Garth is such a zip. No brains in his head at all.
  6. n.
    an ounce of a drug. : How much for a zip of hash.
  7. n.
    cocaine. : He's freezing his nose with zip nearly every night.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

zip  (v.2)
"to close or fasten by means of a zipper," 1932, back-formation from zipper.

zipper 
1925, probably from zip (1). The trademark taken out on the name that year applied to a boot with zippers, not to the "lightning fastener" itself, which was at first called a zip.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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