zipper, v.

zipper
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zipper_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zipperverb

## Earlier version

- zipper, v. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zipper mean?

There are five meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb zipper. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the verb zipper?

About 0.2occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.023
1930 | 0.031
1940 | 0.039
1950 | 0.063
1960 | 0.092
1970 | 0.12
1980 | 0.16
1990 | 0.19
2000 | 0.2
2010 | 0.22

### How is the verb zipper pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪpə/
ZIP-uh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpər/
ZIP-uhr

### Where does the verb zipper come from?

Earliest known use

1920s

The earliest known use of the verb zipper is in the 1920s.

OED's earliest evidence for zipper is from 1927, in Indianapolis Sunday Star.

It is also recorded as a noun from the 1920s.

zipper is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zipper n.

### Nearby entries

1. zipless, adj. 1922–
2. zip line, n. 1970–
3. zip line, v. 1998–
4. zipliner, n. 1993–
5. zip lining, n.?1983–
6. zip-lipped, adj. 1943–
7. ziplock, n. 1928–
8. zipped, adj. 1931–
9. zippeite, n. 1850–
10. zipper, n. 1923–
11. zipper, v.1927–
12. zippered, adj. 1926–
13. zipper foot, n. 1938–
14. zipperhead, n. 1967–
15. zipper problem, n. 1985–
16. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
17. zippie, n.² 1986–
18. zippily, adv. 1924–
19. zippiness, n. 1907–
20. zipping, n. 1868–
21. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
< zipper n.

Compare earlier zip v.1 2.

## Meaning & use

Originally U.S.

1. 1. 1.a.
      1927–
      transitive. To close or fasten (something, esp. an item of clothing) by means of a zip (frequently with up). Also (with open, down, etc.): to open or unfasten (something) by means of a zip (cf. unzipper v.).
      The verb zipper is frequently found in North American English, with zip being the more usual term outside North America (see zip v.1 2b).
      1. 1927

         > Mabel Harlan had the most fetching costume consisting of a vivid vermilion soft suede jacket, belted and ‘zippered’ up the front to the small collar.

         Indianapolis Sunday Star 16 January (Magazine section) 4/3
      2. 1966

         > Driving wind..tunnelled through the TUT's open cab and Forsythe zippered up his jacket.

         D. F. Galouye, Lost Perception vi. 60
      3. 1972

         > He knelt and pulled the bag out and zippered it open.

         B. Pronzini, Panic! 46
      4. 1974

         > After he tucked in his shirt, he closed his pants, zippered them up, put his belt back, and then left.

         H. L. Foster, Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens vi. 284
      5. 2014

         > She zippered down her left boot and withdrew a pistol grip.

         M. Solana, Citizen Sim ii. ii. 167
      6. 2018

         > I zippered my jacket to my chin, pulled my scarf in an extra loop, and walked on in the cold.

         Sunday Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 11 February m2
      U.S. English
      1. zip 1927–
         Senses relating to zip fasteners. transitive. To close or fasten (something) by means of a zip (frequently with adverb or complement, as shut, on, tog…
      2. zipper 1927–
         transitive. To close or fasten (something, esp. an item of clothing) by means of a zip (frequently with up). Also (with open, down, etc.): to open…
      3. to zip up 1932–
         transitive. To close or fasten (something) by means of a zip. Also intransitive: (of a garment, type of fastening, etc.) to open (or close) by…
      View in Historical Thesaurus
   2. 1.b.
      1930–
      intransitive. To open or unfasten, or close or fasten, in a specified way by means of a zip; to have a zip fastener.
      1. 1930

         > These coats in the newer models..do actually slip over the head and zipper up the front and down the cuffs closing in the wrists from any stray drops.

         Altoona (Pennsylvania) Mirror 26 December 19/2
      2. 1969

         > All-purpose nylon pullover... It zippers closed on the left shoulder.

         New York Times Magazine 4 May 72/1 (advertisement)
      3. 2014

         > Jennifer looked flawless in the grey ensemble that zippered up the front.

         MailOnline (Nexis) 10 December (TV& Showbiz section)
      U.S. English
      1. zip 1925–
         Senses relating to zip fasteners. intransitive. To open or unfasten, or close or fasten, in a specified way by means of a zip; to have a zip fastener.
      2. zipper 1930–
         intransitive. To open or unfasten, or close or fasten, in a specified way by means of a zip; to have a zip fastener.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
   3. 1.c.
      1938–
      transitive. To fasten the clothes of (a person) by means of a zip; to enclose (a person) in something by closing it with a zip; to zip (a person) into something. Frequently with up.
      1. 1938

         > She..expects her husband to zipper her up in the back as often as she puts buttons in his shirt.

         Manitowoc (Wisconsin) Herald-Times 31 December 7
      2. 1941

         > She..zippered him into his blue blanket and opened the window and kissed his cheek.

         J. Kelly, Marriage is Private Affair vii. 162
      3. 1989

         > Then I rolled him over on his stomach, brought the bag around, and zippered him up.

         M. Milan, Squad 107
      4. 2007

         > ‘Zipper me up, love.’ Stevie gave the zip a sharp tug.

         P. Williams, Egg Race iv. 28
      costume U.S. English
      1. lace?c1225–
         transitive. To fasten, tighten, or fix on with a cord, string, etc.; to fasten the lace of. Chiefly spec.: to fasten or tighten (an item of…
      2. gird 1297–
         To secure (clothing, armour, etc.) on the person by means of a girdle; also to gird on, to gird up.
      3. belt a1400–
         transitive. To gird on (a weapon); to fasten on (armour, a shield, etc.) with a belt. Also with on.
      4. button a1425–
         transitive. To fasten (a garment) with buttons; to secure or close by means of a button or buttons. Often with up.
      5. garter c1440–
         transitive. To tie with a garter. Also with on, up.
      6. lash c1440–1611
         transitive. To lace (a garment). Obsolete.
      7. point a1470–1598
         transitive. To fasten or lace (an item of clothing) with tagged points or laces; to fit or adorn with such points. Obsolete.
      8. truss a1475–
         spec. To tie the ‘points’ or laces with which the hose were fastened to the doublet. (With the hose, the points, or the person as object.) Cf. 6. Obs…
      9. lace 1485–
         transitive. With up. Also intransitive: to fasten the laces of one's shoes, boots, etc.
      10. fasten 1600
          transitive. To close or secure (a garment, bag, etc.) by means of a tie, belt, clasp, buttons, or other fastening; to close or secure something…
      11. bind 1720
          transferred. To fasten together or connect in various ways, as to harness a horse or chariot (obsolete), to fasten parts of dress (poetic), to…
      12. staylace 1832–
          transitive. To lace up with staylaces.
      13. sandal 1897–
          To fasten with sandals (sandal, n.¹ 3).
      14. zip 1929–
          Senses relating to zip fasteners. transitive. With in, into: to enclose or cover (someone or something) in an item of clothing, a bag, etc., by…
      15. to zip up 1937–
          transitive. To fasten the clothes of (a person) by means of a zip; to enclose (a person) in a sleeping bag or other item by pulling up the zip.
      16. zipper 1938–
          transitive. To fasten the clothes of (a person) by means of a zip; to enclose (a person) in something by closing it with a zip; to zip (a person) into…
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1930–
   transitive. figurative (chiefly North American). To keep (one's mouth or lips) closed so as not to talk or divulge information. Frequently used in commands to stop talking, as in zipper your mouth. Cf. zip v.1 2d.
   1. 1930

      > Zipper. To shut something up, principally the mouth.

      J. Lait, Put on Spot 212
   2. 1942

      > You can spread panic and discontent so easily when we need calm and efficiency so desperately. Zipper your lips.

      Winnipeg Free Press 22 August 9
   3. 1954

      > ‘Zipper your mouth,’ Monk would retort. ‘You're making more draft than the wind.’

      C. H. Rathjen, Smoke-eater xxi. 205
   4. 1994

      > Again I bit my tongue, zippered my lips.

      R. Evans, Kid stays in Picture (1995) xlv. 415
   North American English
3. 3.
   1955–
   transitive. In scientific contexts: to bind or attach (adjacent polymeric molecules, membranes, etc.) as if by a zip fastener, esp. by a linear or sequential series of bonds or links. Also intransitive (usually with up): to become linked or attached as if by a zip. Cf. zip v.1 2e.
   1. 1955

      > This concept of intermolecular association likewise explains the reverse action of retrogradation, zippering together linear molecules to give gels or insoluble precipitates.

      T. J. Schoch & A. L. Elder in Advances in Chemistry vol. 22 27
   2. 1960

      > The presence, shortly after cooling, of rods (presumably triple helices) suggests that the single helices ‘zipper’ up with ease.

      Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. vol. 46 1192
   3. 1971

      > It seems to act by zippering together chromosomes which have their homologous telomeres attached next to each other at the nuclear membrane.

      Nature 3 September 48/2
   4. 2003

      > The hole in the upper (dorsal) surface of the embryonic epidermis is in the process of being zippered closed from both the left and right ends.

      Science 4 April 63/3 (caption)
   5. 2016

      > While ‘single-stranded’ RNA molecules do not usually have full-length partner strands of RNA to zipper up with, RNA molecules form a number of shorter helices instead through base pairing either within or between molecules.

      D. Elliott & M. Ladomery, Molecular Biol. RNA (ed. 2) ii. 14/2
   U.S. English

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪpə/
ZIP-uh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpər/
ZIP-uhr

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

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.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

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.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

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 0.2 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, v., 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 | 0.023
1930 | 0.031
1940 | 0.039
1950 | 0.063
1960 | 0.092
1970 | 0.12
1980 | 0.16
1990 | 0.19
2000 | 0.2
2010 | 0.22

### Frequency of zipper, v., 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.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.008
2018 | 0.0085
2019 | 0.0098
2020 | 0.012
2021 | 0.014
2022 | 0.015
2023 | 0.016
2024 | 0.016

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zippered, adj. 1926–
   Esp. of an item of clothing: fastened by means of…

1. unzipper, v. 1936–
   transitive. To unfasten (an item of clothing…

zipper, v. was revised in March 2021.

zipper, v. was last modified in July 2023.