zaphttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zap_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezap, n.
First published 1986; not fully revised

zapnoun

slang (originally U.S.).
  1. 1.
    1968–
    Liveliness, energy, power, drive; also, a strong emotional effect.
    1. 1968
      When the heat's too much and the gin's lost its zap.., tranquilize your jangled nerves with the Swinging Wonder.
      New York Times 2 August 3
    2. 1972
      As for those lyrics—probably only the over-30s will dig them. Anyone older or younger won't grasp the ‘organic’ zap of rock's years of innocence.
      Publishers Weekly 6 March 62/2
    3. 1975
      The zap of his language drawn from every dialect of the underground.
      Harpers & Queen May 128/3
    4. 1979
      She loves sports, especially skiing, but found she had lost some of her old zap.
      Chatelaine (Canada) January 50
    5. 1984
      He gives the film a manic zap.
      New Yorker 16 April 141/1
  2. 2.
    1972–
    A demonstration (by a group against something).
    1. 1972
      Despite six zaps, New York's Mayor Lindsay has consistently refused to meet with any homosexual delegation.
      Saturday Review (U.S.) 12 February 26
    2. 1974
      A demonstration, alternatively described as a community action or a zap, had been planned..in Brixton's Tesco supermarket.
      Times 7 October 12/3
  3. 3.
    1983–
    Computing. A change in a program.
    1. 1983
      I would like to provide the following zaps to TRSDOS 1·3 for the Model III. To provide a 30ms track stepping rate you must change the nine bytes listed below.
      80 Microcomputing January 29/1
  4. 4.
    1984–
    A short, varying sound of the kind expressed by ‘zap!’.
    1. 1984
      The whir of the flippers—pin-ball machines—the zaps of the video games.
      Verbatim vol. 10 iii. 17/2

Additional sense (1993)

  1. 1979–
    U.S. colloquial. A charge or bolt, as of electricity; a beam or burst of radiation from a laser, etc.
    1. 1979
      He would get zaps of sunlight in his face.
      T. Wolfe, Right Stuff x. 263
    2. 1979
      If the transformers were perfect you would get precisely the 110 volts you wanted and could care less about the big zap lurking outside.
      Modern Photography October 68
    3. 1982
      How do you drill a hole in the diamond? This was a wearying process before the laser came along, but now a simple zap suffices.
      J. Purcell, From Hand Ax to Laser xi. 289
    4. 1991
      When Alvarez published his theories, people snapped them up because they explained everything in one great iridium zap.
      Discover March 56/2

zap, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zap, n. was last modified in June 2024.