Zeppelin, n.
(ˈzɛpəlɪn)
[The name of the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.]
In full Zeppelin airship: a dirigible airship; properly, one of a type constructed by Count Zeppelin of Germany in 1900.
Sometimes colloquially abbreviated Zepp.
| 1900 Whitaker's Alm. 665/2 The Zeppelin Air-ship, now [1899] in construction on an island of the Boden See, is a cylindrical frame of aluminium in partitions, each holding a gas-bag. 1914 F. T. Jane in Land & Water 12 Sept. 15*/1 A Zeppelin has dropped bombs on Antwerp. Ibid. 19 Sept. 19*/1 Alarming rumours of a German Zeppelin invasion of England viâ Calais. Ibid. 26 Sept. 16*/2 It takes something like a year to build a Zeppelin shed. |
Hence ˈZeppelin v. trans., to drop bombs on from a Zeppelin (see also Zep v.); ˈZeppelinite, one who advocates the use of Zeppelins as an engine of war, esp. against non-combatants; ˈZeppelinist, a member of the crew of a Zeppelin; Zeppeliˈnistic a., resembling a Zeppelin in shape; (both rare—1).
| 1916 Wells Mr. Britling i. v. §12 They will Zeppelin the fleet and walk through our army. 1916 Daily Express 29 Mar. 4/7 The battle royal between the Zeppelinites and the anti-Zeppelinites [in Germany] continues. 1930 Kipling Limits & Renewals (1932) 328 He called Saint Jukamus a militarist and an impostor—this defaitist of a Zeppelinistic belly! 1937 F. Morison War on Great Cities iv. 127 The demons who drove and dealt death cared as little for us as the earlier Zeppelinists cared. |