▪ I. skipper, n.1
(ˈskɪpə(r))
Also 5 skyppare, 6 skyppar.
[f. skip v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who or that which skips or jumps.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 458/1 Skyppare, saltator, saltatrix. 1530 Palsgr. 271/1 Skyppar, saultevr. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 264 Many a time the fishers twitch vp their hooks, and see a number of these skippers [fleas] and creepers [lice] setled thicke about their baits which they laied for fishes. |
b. Applied contemptuously to a youth. rare—1.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 341 Tra. Greybeard, thy loue doth freeze. Gre. But thine doth frie. Skipper stand backe, 'tis age that nourisheth. |
2. spec. As a name for various insects: † a. A locust. Obs. rare.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3087 Ðis wind hem broȝte ðe skipperes, He deden on gres and coren deres. 1599 T. Moufet Silkwormes 25 Springs not from egges that..bloudy Crocodile, Fish, Lyzards, Snakes, and Skippers African? |
b. A skipjack or spring-beetle.
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geogr. I. 225 Skipper, Elater oculatus. 1813 Bingley Anim. Biogr. (ed. 4) III. 143 The Night-Shining Skipper. In the savannas of most of the warmer parts of America, these insects are to be seen in great abundance. |
c. A butterfly of the family Hesperiidæ.
Also used with various distinguishing epithets, as chequered skipper, clouded skipper, dingy skipper, Lulworth skipper, pearl skipper, etc.
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 305 A butter⁓fly, called by Aurelians ‘The large skipper’ (Hesperia Sylvanus, F.), when it alights..always turns half-way round. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commiss. Agric. (1869) 314 The family of skippers, Hesperians, are rather small, thick⁓bodied butterflies, having the antennæ hooked at the end like a shepherd's crook. 1896 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. VI. 92 To Pamphila and the following genera belong all the small, quick-flying butterflies, known as the skippers, properly so called. |
| attrib. 1903 A. C. P. Haggard Sporting Yarns 126 A butterfly of the skipper tribe. |
d. dial. and U.S. A cheese-maggot, or other small maggot, etc., of similar habits.
| 1828–32 in Webster. 1882– in dial. glossaries (Cornwall, Cumberland). |
3. spec. As a fish-name: a. The saury pike.
| 1674 Ray Coll. Words, Fishes 104 Skipper, Acus minor. a 1705 ― Synop. Pisc. (1713) 109 In Mari Britannico duæ Acus species inveniuntur, ut nobis retulerunt piscatores Cornubienses, quarum alteri Girrocks, alteri Skippers nomen indiderunt. 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes I. 394 The Saury Pike. Skipper, Scomberesox saurus. 1865 Couch Brit. Fishes IV. 141 Skipper..is a migratory fish, which comes to our coasts at the beginning of summer. |
b. The hopping-fish of Australia.
| 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 419. |
4. One who omits passages in reading.
Cf. the earlier overskipper (1377) and forskipper.
| 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. lxvi, He never had skipped in his life, and had such a thorough contempt for skippers. 1856 Titan Mag. Nov. 415/1 Our service is spoil'd by..The trippers—the clippers—the impudent skippers. 1888 Athenæum 11 Feb. 178/1 He has..compiled a useful and interesting monograph, especially for the judicious skipper. |
▪ II. skipper, n.2
(ˈskɪpə(r))
Also 4, 7 skypper, 6 skyppar, 5–7 skippar (6 -are), 7 sckipper, skiper, 7–8 scipper, 8 schipper.
[ad. MDu. or MLG. schipper (cf. Fris. and Da. skipper, Sw. skeppare, ON. skipari; also OF. eskipre, eschipre), f. schip ship n.]
1. a. The captain or master of ship, esp. of a small trading, merchant, or fishing vessel; † a shipman, seaman.
In the 15th and 16th cent. chiefly in Sc. use.
| 1390 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camd.) 37 Item Herman, skypper de Dansk. 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 310 The skippar of the schip callit the Ros. 1506 in Charters, etc. Edinb. (1871) 190 That na skipperis nor maisters of schippis saill furth of our realme [etc.]. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. 16 My rapier pendant like a round sticke fastned in the tacklings for skippers the better to climbe by. 1624 in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1909) III. 19 The murder of one of our people ther by a scipper of theirs. 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v. Scipper, But we usually take Skippers for common Seamen or Mariners. 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 65 Eight of them went a shore, leaving two Indians aboord with the English Skipper. 1721 Ramsay Prospect of Plenty 154 The north-sea skippers are leal⁓hearted men. 1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. II. i. 110 A French man of war..met one of our fishing vessels..[and] sent for the skipper to come on board. 1822 Scott Nigel iii, A rank, as well as manners, highly superior to the skippers (or Captains, as they called themselves) of merchant vessels. 1878 Jevons Polit. Econ. 29 The skipper starts when wind and tide are in his favour. |
| fig. 1673 S. Parker Reproof Reh. Transp. 481 As if you were the Skipper of the State. |
| Comb. 1848 Dickens Dombey iv, Here he lived too, in skipper-like state, with his nephew Walter. |
b. skipper's daughters, high white-crested waves.
| 1888 Stevenson Across the Plains vi. (1905) 130 Out in the open there were ‘skipper's daughters’. |
2. The captain or director of a sporting team or side.
In curling and bowling the Sc. term is now skip n.3, which is also used generally as a colloq. abbrevation.
| 1830 Memorab. Curl. Maben. 100 The sweeping department to be under the exclusive control of the skipper. 1838 in Chambers's Inform. People (1849) II. 651/1 The skippers shall have the exclusive regulation and direction of the game [in curling]. 1893 Star 30 May 1/7 He..afterwards acted as skipper of the Cambridgeshire Eleven. |
3. Gun-making. (See quot.)
| 1851–4 Tomlinson's Cycl. Arts (1867) I. 821/1 From [the screwer-together the gun] passes to the skipper and finisher, who takes the whole to pieces, and corrects any trifling errors of the preceding workmen. |
4. Services' slang. A commanding officer in the army; the captain of an aircraft or squadron.
| 1906 Soldier Slang in C. McGovern Sarjint Larry an' Frinds, Skipper, the commanding officer. 1926 Sat. Even. Post 6 Mar. 154/3 The skipper told us to look after yuh. 1929 Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 323 Skipper, the squadron commander in the Royal Naval Air Service. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest v. 86 The Skipper wondered if you'd like to go forward to the flight deck for a look around. 1977 R.A.F. News 11–24 May 9/1 The headmaster..will join his wartime Whitley skipper, Gp Capt Leonard Cheshire. |
5. slang (orig. U.S.). A police captain or sergeant; a police chief.
| 1929 Hostetter & Beesley It's a Racket! 238 Skipper, a police captain in command of a police station, bureau, or district. 1930 Amer. Mercury Dec. 457/2, I goes to the skipper and fronts for the mutt. 1962 John o' London's 25 Jan. 82/2 A police sergeant is called skipper. 1976 D. Barnes Yesterday is Dead (1977) ii. 262 Good piece of police work... I'll fill the skipper in. I'm sure he'll be pleased. |
Hence ˈskippership, the office of skipper; the management or handling of a ship.
| 1828 Examiner 1/1 If skippership went to the highest bidder,..we should have a still greater proportion of bad pilots. 1894 Daily Chron. 4 Aug. 3/5 In recognition of his skippership of the Trafalgar. |
Add: 6. Scouting. a. From 1912, a title for the (adult) leader of a troop of Sea Scouts (after 1949, Sea Explorers in the U.S.). b. An adult leader of Girl Scout Mariners (in U.S., 1934 to 1980) or Sea Rangers (in U.K.). c. In extended use, a colloq. name for a scoutmaster, or troop leader.
| 1912 W. Baden-Powell Sea Scouting & Seamanship for Boys ii. 28 Officer spoke English to our skipper, but gave boat's crews orders in German. 1929 Handbk. for Scoutmasters xx. 450 The success of the Sea Scout Program is dependent upon the Skipper. 1938 Sea Sense i. 6 The idea of being a ship's crew can be carried out by the Skipper. 1977 Guider July 331/2 She was a Guider in this Company, a Brown Owl of the first Teignmouth Pack, a Sea Ranger Skipper and a District Commissioner. 1985 S. Jacobson Brit. & Amer. Scouting & Guiding Terminol. ii. 31 In 1934 the Girl Scout Mariner program had been launched... The names for the Troop Leader and her Assistant/s/ were usually ‘Skipper’ and ‘Mate/s/’. 1986 Scouting Mar. 15/1 He'd asked my ‘Skipper’ whether someone could write an article for The Scout on our Troop's camp. |
▪ III. ˈskipper, n.3 Cant.
Also 6 skypper.
[A canting term, possibly ad. Cornish sciber or W. ysgubor a barn.]
1. † a. A barn, outhouse, or shed, used as a sleeping-place by vagrants. Obs.
| 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 83 A skypper, a barne. Ibid. 85, I couched a hogshead in a Skypper this darkemans. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew ii. Wks. 1873 III. 392 Now let each Tripper Make a retreat into the Skipper. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Skipper, a Barn. [Hence in later Dicts.] |
b. Any sleeping-place for a vagrant.
| 1925 Flynn's 3 Jan. 661/2 Skipper,..a lodging house; a tramp. 1935 ‘G. Orwell’ Clergyman's Daughter ii. 101 We ain't got a brown between us, and we..got to tap for our tommy and skipper at nights. 1939 J. Worby Spiv's Progress i. 9 I'm going north. Do you know any good skippers up the road? 1978 Country Life 20 July 189/2 He had painfully to learn the rudiments of vagrant survival; to make sure of his ‘skipper’ or kip before dark. |
2. A vagrant; one who sleeps rough.
| 1925 [see sense 1 b above]. 1965 Guardian 9 Dec. 9/1 It was the night of the big Government census of the ‘skippers’—the people who sleep rough. 1977 Listener 28 July 103/3 On the rubble-strewn redevelopment sites of central Glasgow, you find the groups of ‘skippers’, the men who live rough... These are the ones who admit that alcohol has won. |
3. An act of sleeping rough; esp. in to do a skipper.
| 1935 H. Neville Sneak Thief on Road 347 Skipper, a liedown in a spinney or anywhere where no rent is paid. 1937 J. Curtis You're in Racket Too i. 9 It would be no fun doing a skipper on a November night. 1962 Observer 11 Mar. 35/1 There are not enough beds. Many will be turned away and have to do a ‘skipper’ in station, park or ruin. |
▪ IV. † ˈskipper, n.4 Obs. rare—1.
[ad. Du. schepper scoop, ladle: cf. skip v.2]
(See quot.)
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xxii. (Roxb.) 280/1 A Skipper or Sugar ladle. |
▪ V. ˈskipper, v.1
[f. skipper n.2]
trans. To act as skipper or captain of (a vessel, team, etc.).
| 1893 Westm. Gaz. 25 July 5/2 The former is to skipper his yacht Meteor. 1950 Sport 7–11 Apr. 14/1 Dick skippered the City side who, in 1938, wrote a chapter of Cup history. 1951 N. M. Gunn Well at World's End xxvi. 239 The idea..was to get the old man to skipper her for a couple of seasons. 1977 R.A.F. News 27 Apr.–10 May 5/1 Brian, then a flight lieutenant, had skippered the Sunderland on three flights. |
| absol. 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 445/2 The owner skippers for himself. |
▪ VI. ˈskipper, v.2 Cant.
[f. skipper n.3]
intr. To sleep in a barn or outhouse, or in the open. Also with it.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 478 They..frequently ‘skipper it’ in the open air, when the weather is fine and warm. 1894 D. C. Murray Making of a Novelist 107 In the language of the road, to sleep in the open is to ‘skipper’. |
| Comb. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 310 Here is the best places in England for ‘skipper-birds’; (parties that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or outhouses, sometimes without a blanket). |
Add: Hence ˈskippering vbl. n.
| 1968 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 22 Dec. 21/1 He has lived in hostels or skippered—lived without visible means of support. ‘My skippering was organized,’ he said. 1983 Daily Tel. 31 Oct. 14/6 No decent woman can get a bed in this town under {pstlg}7 a night. And the ‘skippering’ allowance paid to vagrants is {pstlg}2.95 a day. 1987 Economist 26 Dec. 61/3 Most of the advisory services try to persuade young people to get out of central London... They sleep on friends' floors, or resort to ‘skippering’—taking over a deserted house or flat with no furniture and often no lavatories. |
▪ VII. ˈskipper, v.3 rare—1.
[freq. of skip v.1]
intr. To skip or hop.
| 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xiv, A grass-finch skippered to the top of a stump. |