Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use kipper in a sentence

30 example sentences · noun, verb, adjective

Kipper means a split, salted and smoked herring or salmon. Example: “Kipper, I discovered, was airman's slang for a fishing boat.”

Examples of kipper by meaning

nounA patrol to protect fishing boats in the Irish and North Seas against attack from the air.

  • Kipper, I discovered, was airman's slang for a fishing boat.1941, L. Walmsley, Fishermen at War
  • Kipper-kites, aircraft engaged on convoy escort duties over the North Sea and usually giving protection to the fishing-vessels.1943, J. L. Hunt, A. G. Pringle, Service Slang, page 42

nounA torpedo.

  • As she was only crawling along I aimed my first ‘kipper’ just a fraction ahead of her bows.1953, Mars Unbroken
  • I evaluate its firing power at eighteen torpedoes—I think kipper is a distressing piece of naval slang—in thirty minutes.1959, G. Jenkins, Twist of Sand

nounAn Englishman who has moved to Australia.

  • 1 Kipper, Englishman1946, R. Rivett, Behind Bamboo 397
  • An able seaman on a kipper warship called the Eagle.1946 August 8, Sunday Sun (Sydney)

nounA fool.

  • But carrying on with another officer's wife, well, separated wife; won't it affect my career?' 'Don't be a silly kipper.'2010, Frederick Lees, The Malayan Life of Ferdach O'Haney
  • Why didn't he go to the May Island, the silly kipper that he was, and bring us all back a nice wee lass instead of you, you nasty brat!'2018, Rosemary Goring, Scotland: Her Story

nounA child or young person.

  • Half-a-dozen dreadfully common young bicyclists were commenting on her discomfiture with delighted exclamations of ‘Giddy old Kipper’, ‘Sweet Seventeen’, ‘Cheero, Maudie—you'll win!’1907 April 10, Punch
  • If you're enterprizing enough to climb one of the trees christened by usage ‘The Kipper's Tree’, which hardly needs to be translated into plainer terms.1923, M. M. Gibb, Hetherington's Affinity

verbTo damage or treat with smoke.

  • “It might have kippered his brains,” Jimmy Duncan suggested.2011, Derek Robinson, War Story
  • So she let herself be crammed into a corner of the smelliest pub in town, slowly kippering in a haze of other people's cigarette smoke.2012, Zoe Barnes, Just Married
  • The gorgeous exhalation of millions of gaspers and fags and tabs and snouts and pipes and – my personal favourite– Panatelas, had kippered my walls for a century and a quarter.2020, James Nelson Roebuck, Red Flags

verbTo dry out with heat or harsh chemicals; to desiccate.

  • The beach was littered with palm-thatch umbrellas and half-naked, kippering bodies, and the Marina packed with seagoing craft of every description.1995, Rosamunde Pilcher, Three Complete Novels, page 102
  • He taught us to soak our feet with meths and pot permang , kippering them hard and black , preventing blisters.2004, Trevor Clark, Good Second Class (but Not Even C.3), page 58
  • Even the smell of aviation fuel from departing aircraft would be better than being kippered in here.2005, David M. Addison, An Italian Journey: A Sort of Latter-Day Mini Grand Tour, page 28

verbTo drink or give a drink of alcohol, especially to intoxication.

  • No man should appear at his day's labors unless well kippered.1995, Anne Douglas, Miss Caroline's Deception, page 106

More sentences with kipper

  • He was done for, you know . . . quite kippered . . .2015, Leon Garfield, The Drummer Boy, page 85. From the entry kippered
  • Fortify yourself with a full Scottish breakfast of smoked kippers, haggis, and creamy porridge.2004, Travel & Leisure. From the entry full Scottish breakfast
  • For the retail market, kippers are available in either catchweight or fixed weight presentation.1979, Food Flavourings, Ingredients & Processing - Volume 1, page 187. From the entry catchweight
  • Kipper drained his glass to the lees and seemed to become calmer.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X. From the entry lees
  • Where, lingering lovingly on kippered lies, They babble over chestnuts and their punch And stale round-table jests of years ago.2019, Robert Baldwin Ross, Masques & Phases. From the entry kippered
  • Two waiters brought in kipper pâté and thin toast.2014, Ian McEwan, The Children Act, Penguin Random House (2018), page 152. From the entry pâté
  • An owner describes their "endearing habit of nosewrinkling, woo-woo-wooing, and kippering (walking on front legs, sliding rear like a seal)."2011, Chris Walkowicz, Choosing a Dog For Dummies. From the entry kippering
  • Aided by government propaganda, herring became an important British war-time food, not pickled, but 'freshed' (packed loosely in ice) and kippered.1960, Nigel Nicolson, Lord of the Isles: Lord Leverhulme of the Hebrides, page 84. From the entry fresh
  • Kippering is a trait in young Sussex where the dog propels themselves forward with their forelegs while dragging their rear legs extended behind them.2015, Ross D. Clark, Medical, Genetic & Behavioral Risk Factors of Sussex Spaniels and Clumber Spaniels. From the entry kippering
  • These delicacies are widely exported and are also part of the Island's cuisine along with fresh fish, lobsters, Manx lamb, kippers and bonnag.2001, Trevor Kneale, Derek Croucher, The Isle of Man, page 96. From the entry bonnag
  • Miamians dressed well, for Miami Joe dressed well, his purple suits—solid, others of pinstripes in different widths—masterfully tailored, complemented by his collection of short, fat kipper ties.2021, Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle, Fleet, page 40. From the entry Miamian
  • For my first English breakfast I had kippers and pink champagne - what a combination, still it was a bit of a giggle and I know I've really arrived.2013, Patricia Newell-Dunkley, Letters of a Travelling Lady, page 16. From the entry giggle
  • Today, for example, he had dined on the finest entrecôte steak he had ever tasted; lunched on a superb braised oxtail printanière; breakfasted on broiled kippers and Wiltshire bacon.1985, Marshall Jevons, chapter 16, in The Fatal Equilibrium, page 173. From the entry printanier

Meaning of kipper

  1. noun A split, salted and smoked herring or salmon.
  2. noun A male salmon after spawning.
  3. noun A patrol to protect fishing boats in the Irish and North Seas against attack from the air.

Full definition of kipper

Questions about kipper in a sentence

How do you use kipper in a sentence?
Kipper is used as a noun, verb and adjective. For example: “Kipper, I discovered, was airman's slang for a fishing boat.”
What is a short sentence with kipper?
“1 Kipper, Englishman”
What does kipper mean?
Kipper means a split, salted and smoked herring or salmon.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kipper (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use kipper in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/kipper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.