There are five meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zipper, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
This word is used in North American English.
zipper has developed meanings and uses in subjects including
† U.S. A brand name for: a type of boot or overshoe with a zip fastener. Obsolete.
1923
This cozy, snug fitting little Zipper boot worn right over your street shoes or your dainty slippers... A hookless fastener gives Zipper its name. Zipper has a smooth wool jersey top with cuff.
Beatrice (Nebraska) Daily Sun 22 November 3 (advertisement)
1925
These good looking zippers, zip up the front and are easier to walk in than most overshoes.
Lincoln (Nebraska) Sunday Star 1 November 7
1928
Why take chances when you can save by wearing ZIPPERS.
Stanford (California) Daily 6 February 3 (advertisement)
A fastening device for clothes, bags, and other items, consisting of two flexible strips with interlocking projections of metal or plastic which can be closed or opened by pulling a sliding tag along them; (also) the sliding tag on such a fastener; a zip.
Zip is the more usual term outside North America (see zipn.1 B.2).
1924
The dresses are simply made and feature the zipper fastener front. The zipper is made attractive by having a carved ivory motif that fastens or unfastens the dress.
La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune & Leader-Press 11 March 6
1928
Bootees..fastening with ‘zippers’, press studs, or inset clips.
Daily Express 11 October 5/5
1957
He hated fiddling with things like zippers caught on tiny strips of cloth.
New Yorker 29 June 24/2
1979
She reached for the zipper of her skirt.
R. Jaffe, Class Reunioni. xi. 105
1995
I had finished peeing and was pulling up my pants..but the zipper was stuck.
E. Arthur, Antarctic Navigation 96
2019
They modernized the jeans' design, replacing the button fly with zippers.
In scientific contexts: a structure or process whose mode of action resembles the opening or closing of a zip fastener. Frequently as a modifier.
1937
The work of adhesion between the protein film and the stearate film is not sufficient to give a sufficiently strong zipper action.
Science 15 January 77/2
1950
The other question arises as to whether a structural irregularity, such as the introduction of other units into the polymer chain, itself interrupts the smooth flow of the ‘zipper’ reaction.
Science Progressvol. 38 8
1988
Landschulz, Johnson, and McKnight propose that the leucine side chains from one protein molecule interdigitate with those on a second protein, effectively forming a zipper that holds the two molecules together.
Science 24 June 1732/2
2011
Leucine zippers are oligomerization domains used in a wide range of proteins.
North American. A long electronic sign or screen which displays scrolling text such as news or advertisements. Now also: a band of scrolling text displayed on a television or computer screen; a news ticker. Frequently in news zipper.
1957
Look for the new zipper sign.
Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel 25 April 19/4 (advertisement)
1982
The electronic news ‘zipper’ that once flashed news reports around No. 1 Times Square was lit up again today.
Los Angeles Times 31 December 1/4
2003
Screens..crowded with info-bits, including a traveling zipper of text across the bottom.
Columbia Journalism Review (Nexis) January–February
2006
A stock ticker and a news zipper..take up a third of the screen.
New Yorker 5 June 89/2
2013
The digital zipper sign at the pawnshop at the intersection of Hood Road and Route 190 in the center of Killeen flashes, We Love Our Soldiers!!! Great Deals!!! Best Prices For Your Stuff!!!
colloquial. to put the zipper on (also to put a zipper on): to put a stop to (something); to interrupt or prevent (a plan or course of action). Cf. sense 2b.
1937
It behooves every voter in Vigo county to put a zipper on his enthusiasm.
Saturday Spectator (Terre Haute, Indiana) 20 November 4/2
1986
He just wanted to put the zipper on the rumors.
P. Evans, Ari xvii. 293
2011
[He] wrote to the Smithsonian's Surprising Science blog to put the zipper on Levi's suggestion.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.
Vowels
iːfleece
ihappy
ɪkit
ɛdress
atrap, bath
ɑːstart, palm, bath
ɒlot
ɔːthought, force
ʌstrut
ʊfoot
uːgoose
əletter
əːnurse
ɪənear
ɛːsquare
ʊəcure
eɪface
ʌɪpride
aʊmouth
əʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ãgratin
ɒ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.
Vowels
ifleece, happy
ɪkit
ɛdress
ætrap, bath
ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
ɑrstart
ɔcloth, thought
ɔrnorth, force
ʊfoot
ugoose
əstrut, comma
ərnurse, letter
ɪ(ə)rnear
ɛ(ə)rsquare
ʊ(ə)rcure
eɪface
aɪpride
aʊmouth
oʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ɑ̃gratin
æ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
gguy
jjay
yyore
chchore
khloch
shshore
ththaw
dhthee
zhbeige
Vowels
atrap
ahpalm
airsquare
arstart
arrcarry (British only)
awthought
ayface
a(ng)gratin
edress
eefleece
eerdeer
errmerry
ikit
ighpride
irrmirror
olot (British only)
ohgoat
oogoose
oorcure
orforce
orrsorry (British only)
owmouth
oyvoice
o(ng)salon
ustrut
uhletter
urnurse
urrhurry
uufoot
Frequency
zipper typically occurs about 0.9 times per million words in modern written English.
zipper is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.
Frequency of zipper, n., 1920–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
Decade
Frequency per million words
1920
0.16
1930
0.2
1940
0.23
1950
0.35
1960
0.48
1970
0.59
1980
0.75
1990
0.9
2000
0.98
2010
1.1
Frequency of zipper, n., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.
As a modifier with the sense ‘of or involving a zipper; opened or closed by means of a zipper; provided with a zipper’, as in zipper bag, zipper fastener, zipper fastening, zipper pull, etc.
1924
The dresses are simply made and feature the zipper fastener front.
La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune & Leader-Press 11 March 6
1925
The most convenient and attractive form of the pocket purse is this one of lizard calf, leather lined, with a zipper fastening.
Scribner's Magazine June 31/1 (advertisement)
1937
He was wearing his dark blue zipper jacket.
D. Aldis, Time at Her Heels ix. 196
1941
A pair of tennis shorts with zipper fly.
I. Baird, He rides Sky 234
1960
He sat down among his belongings, which were partly in and partly out of his zipper bag.
M. Spark, Ballad of Peckham Rye ii. 22
1991
Double zipper pulls can provide access to either end of a bag, and can be locked together.
Fly Rod & Reel March 56/2
C.1.b.
1926–
As a modifier with the sense ‘with or by means of a zipper’, as in zipper-closed, zipper-fastened, etc.
1926
Boys New Zipper Sweaters... Featuring the Zipper closed front.
Hutchinson (Kansas) News 3 December 8 (advertisement)
1928
Zipper-fastened.
Daily Express 11 October 5/5
1959
The briefcase..was a slender one, of the type with no handles, zipper-closed.
C. Williams, Man in Motion vii. 81
1998
Put the packets into a zipper-locked freezer bag.
Chicago Tribune 15 March xv. 6/2
C.2.
1996–
Chiefly North American. As a modifier, designating a method of merging traffic in a situation where two lanes are required to merge into one (typically where one lane is closed as a result of construction work), whereby drivers are instructed to stay in lane until the merging point, and then drivers in the open lane take turns allowing drivers in the closing lane to merge in front of them; chiefly in zipper merge, zipper merging.
[With reference to the merging cars in this system resembling the interlocking teeth of a closing zipper.]
1996
Drivers coming from the on-ramp would assist those already on the expressway by matching their speed to the flow of traffic, and then using the ‘zipper’ method of entering—one car per available space.
O. Heinzel, Letter in Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Rec. 30 December a10/4
2001
Traffic signs frequently instruct drivers to delay merges until the end of the merge lane... Drivers are taught to use the ‘zipper’ merge.
Washington Post 5 July (Fairfax Extra Supplement) 20/1
2008
After passing dozens of cars, I made it to the bottleneck point, where..I took my rightful turn in the small alternating ‘zipper’ merge that had formed.
T. Vanderbilt, Traffic (2009) 4
2019
[The driver]..was zipper merging, but her efforts were thwarted by a left lane vigilante who would not let her in line... Zipper merging is the law, but..[her]..experience prompted her to ask why Minnesotans can't zipper merge.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 31 March (Metro edition) 5b