With reference to the zipper on the flies of a pair of trousers.
Meaning & use
euphemistic (originally U.S.).
1985–
(With reference to a man) a habit of sexual promiscuity or infidelity.
The expression is often used in the context of (alleged) sexual misconduct by male public figures, gaining prominence in the 1990s in relation to accusations against Bill Clinton, U.S. President 1993–2001 (cf. quot. 1999).
1985
[He] had gotten the boot from Koch for alleged incompetence, excessive debauchery and an alleged ‘zipper problem’.
New York Amsterdam News 31 August 3/1
1999
How did a president's zipper problem become a constitutional crisis?
Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 4 February 2a/1
2010
Matt was an up-and-coming political journalist who everyone..knew had a major zipper problem.
zipper problem typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zipper problem is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 problem, n., 1980–2010
* 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
1980
0.0009
1990
0.0009
2000
0.0009
2010
0.0009
Originally published as part of the entry for zipper, n.