zapper
(ˈzæpə(r))
[f. zap v. + -er1.]
a. A person, technique, etc., that kills or does away with something. b. spec. Any of various devices for destroying or warding off pests; also (properly with capital initial), a proprietary name in the U.S. for an agricultural machine of this kind.
| 1969 Guardian 27 May 8/5 The United States colonel who formerly commanded them.. is now busy evolving a ‘zapper’ technique for scything down nippa palm groves where Vietcong are reported to be hiding with direct fire artillery. 1970 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 14 Dec. 3/3 The rat zapper does not work on Saturdays or Sundays, but there were still no rats to be seen there yesterday. 1973 Sci. Amer. Sept. 74/2 One particularly promising application, making use of small portable zappers, is for greenhouses and other horticultural enterprises where the cost of soil preparation per acre is not an important consideration. For row crops..the self-propelled Zapper is presently economic only when chemical weed-control costs are higher than $15 per acre. 1975 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 25 Mar. tm 271/2 Zapper. For agricultural machine which employs microwaves to control vegetation and vegetation damaging pests. 1976 Nature 12 Feb. 441/1 The general message is that although various alternatives are promising, there is no magic ‘insect zapper’, as Kennedy put it, to replace chemical poisons in the near future. 1977 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 30 July 4/1 How many bugs do zappers zap? 1983 Monitor (McAllen, Texas) 23 June 10c (Advt.), 1 acre bug zapper. $59·97. 35 watt ultraviolet fluorescent bulb has an effective range up to 1 acre for outdoor comfort. |
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Add: c. The remote-control unit for a piece of electronic equipment, esp. a television or video recorder. Cf. zap v. 9. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1984 Adweek (Eastern ed.) 30 Jan. 50/2 The machine can automatically activate a switching device that does anything from switch the channel to turn off the TV... It may be a year before his hybrid zapper is on the market. 1987 Los Angeles Times 5 Feb. iii. 10/1 Hit the zapper, Maude. Maybe there's some bowling on another channel. 1990 What Satellite July 123/1 BSB comes onto the screen when you select it, using just the one remote zapper. |