skipper

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskɪpɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpə(ɹ)

From Middle English skippere, skyppere, scippere, from Middle Dutch scipper, schipper and Middle Low German schipper (literally “shipper”), equivalent to ship +‎ -er. Cognate with Old English sċipere (“sailor”), Old Norse skipari (“mariner”).

skipper (plural skippers)

1. (nautical) The master of a ship.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 10, in The Celebrity:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

2. A coach, director, or other leader.
3. (sports) The captain of a sports team such as football, cricket, rugby or curling.
   • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC:

     But even the return of skipper Steven Gerrard from a six-week injury layoff could not inspire Liverpool

• (nautical): master, captain

skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)

1. (transitive) To captain a ship or a sports team.

From Middle English skippere, skyppare, equivalent to skip +‎ -er.

skipper (plural skippers)

1. Agent noun of skip: one who skips.
2. A person who skips, or fails to attend class.
3. Any of various butterflies of the families Hesperiidae and its subfamily Megathyminae, having a hairy mothlike body, hooked tips on the antennae, and a darting flight pattern.
   • ca. 1864, John Clare, "We passed by green closes":

     Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut

     Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]

4. Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira, the Pacific saury.
5. (obsolete) A young, thoughtless person.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

6. The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly, in Piophilidae, which leaps to escape predators.

Probably from Welsh [Term?] (“a barn”).

skipper (plural skippers)

1. A barn or shed in which to shelter for the night.

• skipper-bird

skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)

1. (intransitive) To take shelter in a barn or shed.

• Kippers, kippers

Borrowed from English skipper.

• IPA^(key): /ski.pe/

skipper m (plural skippers)

1. skipper

skipper

1. to skipper

Borrowed from English skipper.

skipper m (invariable)

1. (nautical) skipper (person in charge of a vessel)

From Middle Low German schipper

skipper m (definite singular skipperen, indefinite plural skippere, definite plural skipperne)

1. (nautical) a skipper

• fiskeskipper

• “skipper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German schipper

skipper m (definite singular skipperen, indefinite plural skipperar, definite plural skipperane)

1. (nautical) a skipper

• fiskeskipper

• “skipper” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.