▪ I. zip, n.1 colloq.
(zɪp)
[Imitative.]
1. (Often reduplicated zip, zip, or zip-zip.) A syllable expressing a light sharp sound such as that produced by a bullet or other small or slender object passing rapidly through the air or through some obstacle, or by the tearing of canvas or the like; a sound of this kind, or movement accompanied by such sound.
| 1875 Fogg Arabistan xxi. 264 The blood-thirsty zip of mosquitoes by the million. 1885 Century Mag. May 134/1 The ping, zip, zip of bullets. 1887 D. C. Murray in Good Words Apr. 249 The zip of the needle and swish of the thread went on. 1899 Kipling Stalky ii. 55 Another buck⁓shot tore through the rotten canvas tilt with a vicious zipp. |
2. fig. Energy, force, impetus.
| 1900 Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham xi. (1904) 225, I need..a little more zest for my food, and a little more zip about my work. 1907 N. Munro Daft Days xxxii, That's how I feel..when I've got the zip of poetry in me. |
3. Nothing, nought, zero.
Cf. zilch n. (and
a.)
colloq. (
orig. and chiefly
U.S.).
| 1900 Dialect Notes II. 70 Zip, n., a zero in marks. 1904 N.Y. World Mag. 1 May 6/5 ‘Zip’ is the same as ‘zero’. 1927 Amer. Speech III. 455 Swabo, zip, zero. 1972 D. E. Westlake Cops & Robbers (1973) viii. 111 Before this, neither one of us had known zip about stocks and bonds. 1976 Times 27 Apr. 10/8 The successful team are said to have won one-nothing, one-zero or, more fashionably now, one-zip. 1977 J. Cheever Falconer 65 Armed robbery. Zip to ten. Second offense. 1980 J. Krantz Princess Daisy xxv. 443 No launch, no commercials, no nothing. Zip! Finished! Over! |
4. Also
zipp. A form of fastener for clothes, luggage, etc., consisting of two flexible strips with interlocking projections closed or opened by a sliding clip pulled along them. In full,
zip-fastener,
-fastening (see sense 5 below).
Cf. zipper.
| 1928 E. M. Forster Arthur Snatchfold in Life to Come (1972) 102 He felt the shirt..and he gave the zip at the throat a downward pull. 1940 Punch 5 June 612/2 Miss Fisher used to wear some lovely plum-coloured trousers with a zip to match. 1957 J. Braine Room at Top ix. 90 There was too much messing about with buttons and zips and straps. 1969 Homes & Gardens Nov. 190/1, I lost marks in a dressmaking competition because the zipp was machine-stitched in. 1972 Lancet 10 June 1271/1 The plain apron front has an off-centre..fastening by a heavy-duty metal ‘Zipp’, 30 in. long. 1985 Vogue July 77 Over this go..flared shorts..some with zips placed to show not pockets but a sliver of flesh. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 4),
zip bag,
zip-bedding,
zip-case,
zip-fastener,
zip-fastening,
zip-front,
zip jacket,
zip pocket,
zip shirt,
zip side,
zip suit,
zip top;
zip-fastened,
zip-topped adjs.;
zip gun U.S. colloq., a cheap home-made or makeshift gun;
zip lock U.S., used
attrib. to denote plastic bags with an airtight fastening of two interlocking strips; also (a proprietary name)
Ziploc;
zip-top a. = ring-pull adj. s.v. ring n.1 19 a.
| 1937 L. MacNeice in Auden & MacNeice Lett. from Iceland 133 The permutations..of zip bags, Of compacts..and coiffures. 1948 W. Fortescue Beauty for Ashes xxx. 235 Only at Croyden did I discover that my small zip bags had been stowed away in a locker directly under my legs. |
| 1933 T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 384 The new zipp-bedding is a great success. |
| 1960 N. Kneale Quatermass & Pit i. 22 The Minister's Private Secretary enters quickly, clutching a zip-case. |
| 1950 J. Cannan Murder Included vii. 158 A brown zip-fastened handbag. |
| 1927 Daily Express 22 Nov. 3/5 Many of the new sports suits have zip-fasteners. 1973 A. Price October Men vii. 95 He stumbled down the nearest alleyway..fumbling as he went for the zip-fastener on his fly. |
| 1927 Daily Express 6 Sept. 3/4 The airwoman's costume of tango suède, complete from the zip fastening to the little hat..is attracting many admirers. 1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair i. 24 The pomps of death: dissolution had once been a comfortably solid affair. Now it was papier⁓mâché coffins and zipp-fastening shrouds. |
| 1965 N.Y. Herald-Tribune 11 Apr. 8 Zip-front seersucker ‘skimma’. 1974 Harrods Xmas Catal. 9/1 Hostess gown with zip⁓front. |
| 1950 N.Y. Post 29 Sept. 2 Three Bronx schoolboys were held by police today after admitting shooting off a home-made ‘zip’ gun... It was fashioned of a 6-inch stainless steel tube taped to a wooden block with an ordinary closet bolt for a ‘trigger’. By means of a rubber band, a long ·22 caliber bullet could be shot from it. 1971 B. Malamud Tenants 103, I..had thoughts to kill him off with my zip gun but was afraid to. 1984 Listener 7 June 7/2 With the decline of this chicano movement and the increase in sophisticated weapons—zip-guns were replaced with sawn-off shotguns and sometimes automatic weapons—violence rocketed in the Seventies. |
| 1958 Spectator 6 June 729/1 A blue zip jacket and slacks. |
| 1970 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 17 Feb. tm134 Ziploc. The Dow Chemical Company... Filed 9–9–68. 1977 C. McFadden Serial (1978) l. 107/1 Spenser rummaged among the Ziploc bags in his briefcase. 1982 Town Crier (McAllen, Texas) 31 Mar. 1–a/4 Wrapped in foil in a clear zip lock bag. |
| 1979 Daily Tel. 20 Nov. 3/1 When Mrs Robabeh Moheby..was strip-searched, a bundle of banknotes was found in a zip pocket in her knickers. |
| 1976 Morecambe Guardian 7 Dec. 32/4 (Advt.), Boys short-sleeved, zip shirts. |
| 1940 Punch 4 Dec. p. xvii. (Advt.), A Dunlopillo sleeping bag. It has..soft upper lining, zip side,..and makes an ideal holdall. |
| 1978 F. Mullally Deadly Payoff ii. 25 He handed Fernandez a zip-suit of grubby white fatigues. |
| 1970 Times 16 Feb. p. iii, Ring-pull and zip-top cans are already available. 1974 Harrods Xmas Catal. 18/1 Bag..with side pocket, zip top. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 30 Dec. 27/6 Here plastic fish surface and bob for zip-top rings from beer and pop cans. 1979 This England Winter 19/3 She folded her cap inside her apron and pushed both into her zip-topped bag. |
▪ II. zip, n.2 U.S. (
zɪp)
Also
Z.I.P.,
ZIP,
Zip.
[f. the initials of Zoning Improvement Plan.] Used
esp. attrib. in
zip code: a series of digits representing a particular area in a city, etc., used in addressing mail (see
quots.).
| 1963 N.Y. Times 5 May 86/3 Z.I.P. codes, for the present at least, are for big business, and more particularly big users of the mails such as publishers, banks, insurance companies and mail-order houses. 1964 N.Y. Times Book Rev. 5 Apr. 3/2 Among his petty peeves are..Zip codes and automatic telephone dialling. 1969 Computers & Humanities IV. 69 The zip code has been another, but less successful, step towards using computer recognition to improve our lives. Ibid., Once a person has miswritten the zip, the computer just misdirects the mail. 1973 Black Panther 21 July 16/2 (Please print) Name..Address..City..State/Zip. 1975 New Yorker 5 May 2 (Advt.), In ordering a change of address, subscribers should give four weeks' notice, providing both old and new addresses, with Zip Codes. 1977 Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. vi. 26/4 A 13-cent U.S. commemorative honoring 50 years of talking pictures will go on sale Thursday in Hollywood, Cal., where the postmaster Zip is 90028. 1980 Christian Sci. Monitor (Midwestern ed.) 4 Dec. 2/2 The Postal Board of Governors..withheld final approval of a controversial plan to expand ZIP codes to nine digits. |
▪ III. zip, n.3 slang (
orig. U.S. Mil.).
derogatory and
offensive.
Brit. /
zɪp/,
U.S. /
zɪp/
Forms: also with capital initial.
[Probably shortened <zipperhead n. The suggestion that this is an acronym <
Zero I
ntelligence P
otential appears to be a later rationalization.]
A native of East or South-East Asia or person of East or South-East Asian descent;
spec. a Vietnamese person.
| 1968 Esquire Aug. 67/2 I'm up there walkin' the ridgeline an' this Zip jumps up smack into me, lays this AK-47 fucking right into me. 1986 D. A. Dye Platoon (1987) ix. 232 Be advised I've got zips inside the wire. 1987 N.Y. Times (Electronic ed.) 8 Mar. a5 They [sc. Mafia members] are bringing over a lot of immigrants, so-called ‘zips’, to use at the lower levels. 1992 J. F. Flanagan Vietnam above Treetops ix. 185 They respected their enemy. They never used the derogatory terms I would hear elsewhere: gomers, slopes, dinks, gooks, zips, slopeheads. 2003 J. W. Sammon Freedom Pagoda ix. 76 ‘Zips are crazier than hell.’ ‘Zips?’ ‘Yeah, you know. Dinks. Koreans.’ |
▪ IV. zip, v. [f. zip n.1] 1. intr. to make the sound expressed by ‘zip’; also to move briskly or with speed.
| 1852 Knickerbocker XL. 182 How we did ‘z-i-p!’ Seven miles, at one time, in less than seven minutes. 1897 Kipling Day's Work (1898) 234, I heard my flanges zippin' along the ties. 1907 A. Bennett Grim Smile of Five Towns 222 ‘Let her zip,’ said Mr. Colclough. 1915 G. S. Porter M. O'Halloran xix, [A snake] that would..coil zipping mad over the warm twisting body. 1922 S. Lewis Babbitt xviii. 221 Everything zips at the Chatham Road Church. 1929 Evening News 3 Jan. 4/2 He..hardly saw it [sc. the ball] after it pitched, as it zipped off the ground and whipped round his bat to take the off stump. 1958 Daily Mail 24 Feb. 12/2, I found the man..zipping round the garden..on a toy trike. 1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 46/2 Rail travelers will be able to make telephone calls while zipping along at speeds of up to 160 miles an hour from New York City to Washington, D.C. 1976 Guardian Weekly 26 Sept. 9/3 The millions of Orange County commuters, who zip past on the Santa Ana Freeway each morning. 1984 Times 30 Nov. 11/2 Even though she is likely to spend as much time immersed to the elbows in washing up as zipping down the slopes, there is no stigma of ‘service’ attached to the job. |
2. trans. To close with a zip-fastener. Freq.
const. up and with a person being or getting dressed as
obj. Also
intr. for pass. and refl. Also
fig.| 1932 A. Huxley Brave New World iii. 50 He zipped up his trousers. 1936 Sears Catal. 163/4 Easy to ‘Zip’ baby in and out! 1939 Punch 11 Oct. 412/2 The most marvellous outfits..that you step into and zip up. 1942 Time 23 Feb. 78 (Advt.), Zips flawlessly. 1942 in Amer. Speech (1943) XVIII. 305/2 Zip your lip. 1944 Penguin New Writing xx. 60 Zipping on her enchanted house-coat over her night-dress. 1948 Chicago Tribune 28 Mar. (Comics) 4 Stand still, now, while I zip you up! 1956 G. N. Patterson God's Fool i. 14 Shivering in the icy atmosphere, [I] zipped myself into my double-layer sleeping bag. 1968 B. Hines Kestrel for Knave 23 His mother pulled her skirt on and tried to zip it on the hip. 1973 J. Drummond Bang! Bang! You're Dead! viii. 13 Authority, including the B.B.C., did not speculate about guilt. Mouths were carefully zipped. 1980 T. Barling Goodbye Piccadilly ii. 36 The cistern flushed and Cave emerged, zipping up. |
b. The verb-stem in combination, as
zip-down,
zip-in,
zip-off,
zip-on,
zip-out,
zip-over,
zip-up adjs.| 1971 C. Bonington Annapurna South Face 241 [Breeches with] zip-down side to allow putting on over boots and crampons. |
| 1974 Amer. Speech 1970 XLV. 179 Chil-dodger.., zip-in garment to be worn under jackets, coats, or over lounge clothes for extra warmth. |
| 1957 Housewife Sept. 26 Zip-off covers for easy cleaning. 1974 Harper's & Queen Sept. 36/2 Zip-off mink {pstlg}925, extra maxi piece {pstlg}300. |
| 1959 Housewife June 57 Silk cushions..with zip-on covers. |
| 1963 New Yorker 26 Oct. 6 Enter the Chesterfield in Black Tweed..with warm acrylic pile zip-out liner. |
| 1962 ‘A. Gilbert’ No Dust in Attic v. 63 He'd left his luggage..one of the zip-over bags. |
| 1959 M. Shadbolt New Zealanders 26 He wore an open-neck check shirt and a zip-up jacket. 1973 ‘D. Rutherford’ Kick Start i. 12 The zip-up calf-length boots. 1985 Times 24 Jan. 3/2 He was described as aged between 18 and 20, of West Indian appearance..wearing a beige zip-up jacket. |
3. trans. To beat (an opposing team) comprehensively by not allowing it to score.
Cf. zip n.1 3.
| 1976 Daily News (N.Y.) 16 Jan. 82 The Adams Division leaders zipped Los Angeles, 4–0. 1978 Time 16 Jan. 66 The Broncos went out and beat the hell out of them, then the next week, went and zipped Cleveland. |
Hence
ˈzipping vbl. n.;
zipped ppl. a., fastened or provided with a zip. Also
zipped-in,
zip-up adjs. Also
fig.| 1881 J. M. Batten Remin. Two Yrs. U.S. Navy 72, I heard the zipping of bullets in the air close to my head. 1944 [see slide fastener s.v. slide- a]. 1946 ‘S. Russell’ To Bed with Grand Music i. 13 She picked up her mother's zipped travelling bag. 1959 Listener 2 Apr. 593/2 The chemical configuration of starch..is a long zipped-up chain of glucose molecules. 1959 Times 5 Oct. 6/2 A zipped-in detachable lining. 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 vi. 158 Blobb inquired around about the Trystero organization, running into zipped mouths nearly every way he turned. 1972 D. Haston In High Places xi. 117 Down suit and fully zipped windproofs. 1982 M. Kenyon God Squad Bod ii. 22 Zipped-up moneybags, satchels and briefcases. |
▸
trans. a. Sport (
orig. Baseball). To pitch or throw,
esp. quickly or hard. Also
occas.: to hit.
| 1902 Washington Post (Electronic text) 6 Apr. He zipped balls over the heather in fast form and plugged ‘Scoops’ Carey's mit full of leather all the while he worked. 1953 L. V. Berrey & M. Van Den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (1954) §676/13 Pitch hard.., zip. 1982 R. Angell Late Innings ix. 219 Wheel and zip a faster throw to the same spot. 1992 Boston Herald 1 Aug. 51/3 With runners at first and third with one out, Brady Anderson zipped a drive to right. 2004 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 27 Nov. d6 But Zollman..put the game away, zipping an 18-yard scoring pass to Guillory..before hitting Tyler Andujar with a 34-yard touchdown toss six minutes later. |
b. colloq. To move or deliver quickly; to produce rapidly. Freq. with
off,
out, etc.
| 1967 G. F. Fiennes I tried to run Railway iv. 30 Opencast sites were opening as fast as bulldozers could zip off the overburden. 1972 M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha i. 62, I went on duty soon, zipping drinks to a large crowd. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. (Parade Suppl.) 14 d/1 (advt.) Slice Master... Zips out uniform French fries or shoestrings—in seconds! 2002 Colgate Scene (Colgate Univ.) Jan. 33/3 If I missed you, it's because you haven't written. So zip me an email soon with updates and your current email address. |