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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

zapper en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • zăpʹə (UK) r
  • (US) audio
  • /ˈzæp.ə(ɹ)/ (UK)

Etymology

From zap + -er.

Meanings

  1. (colloquial) A remote control for a television.
    • The news is starting on the other channel; hand me the zapper.
  2. (colloquial) A device that electrifies or electrocutes.
    • Miranda is not the sort of person to carry a zapper but she has an oar that would cause a dog a lot more grief if it caught it full on. 2005, Robert Wood, Pushing Envelopes, page 51:
  3. (broadly, colloquial, figuratively) Anything that exterminates.
    • You are going to go from being a toxic-thought overreactor to a toxic-thought zapper. 2009, Jeffrey Bernstein, Liking the Child You Love:
    • If games are your life, the choice of a joystick is desperately important. Casual alien-zappers can get by with the cheapest generic Taiwanese clone-stick […] 1989, Microtimes, volume 6, page 140:
  4. (slang) A microwave oven.
    • I hate to spoil your microwave testimonial, but they were actually cooked in the regular oven this morning and just re-heated in the zapper. 2011, Bob Cohn, To Catch a Catch, page 49:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
zappers Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

like a bug to a zapper

Hyponyms

bug zapper

Translations (11)

sv fjärrkontroll (remote control) · de Vernichter (anything that exterminates) · fi kaukosäädin (remote control) · fr zappette (remote control) · de Fernbedienung (remote control) · de Elektroschocker (device that electrifies or electrocutes) · es mando a distancia (remote control) · fi kake (remote control) · de Elektroschockgerät (device that electrifies or electrocutes) · uk пульт керування (remote control) · fr zapette (remote control)