skipper
Syllables: skip·perUK/ˈskɪp.ə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
New Zealand/ˈskɘp.ɘ/
skipper noun: the master of a ship. Also the agent noun of skip.
Noun (1)
skipper (plural skippers)
- The master of a ship.
- 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.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- It is standard practice for search and rescue authorities to ask other vessels in the area to assist. Usually, this is done. The weather on the night of 31 December was too atrocious, and when at 11pm the Coast Guard asked the crabber Ruff & Reddy to head to the scene, its skipper refused, as a...2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian
- A coach, director, or other leader.
- The captain of a sports team such as football, cricket, rugby or curling.
- But even the return of skipper Steven Gerrard from a six-week injury layoff could not inspire Liverpool2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC Sport
- Synonym of detective sergeant, especially as a term of direct address.
- Synonyms:
- detective sergeant
Verb (1)
skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)
- To captain a ship or a sports team.
- Tourist subs, which could once be skippered by anyone with a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license2019, Tony Perrottet, “A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the ‘Titanic’”, in Smithsonian Magazine
Noun (2)
skipper (plural skippers)
- A person who skips, or fails to attend class.
- One who jumps rope.
- 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.
- Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut
Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]c. 1864, John Clare, We passed by green closes
- Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut
- Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira (Pacific saury) and Sprattus sprattus (European sprat).
- A young, thoughtless person.
- Skipper, stand back; 'tis age that nourishethc. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly (family Piophilidae), which leaps to escape predators.
Noun (3)
skipper (plural skippers)
Verb (2)
skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)
- To take shelter in a barn or shed.
Noun (4)
skipper (plural skippers)
- A short-sleeved (or long-sleeved) tee-shirt, or sweatshirt.
- Plain nylon doeks...Men's knitted skippers, long sleeves, three buttons in front.1971 June 26, Golden City Post
- The special constables..were issued with one pair of boots, two overalls, one raincoat, and two skippers — but no shirts or warm coats.1987 August 19, Eastern Province Herald
Proper noun capitalized: Skipper
Skipper
- A surname.
- A male given name.
Also used as
skipper is also the agent noun of skip.
skipper meaning in Persian
skipper in Persian
- master of a ship
- ناخدا nâxodâ
Examples of skipper in a sentence
- Shaw's five victims included Australian skipper, David Gregory, out for a duck.
- We have concurred that it was clearly Problema byssus, the byssus skipper: a lifer for me.
- The skipper woke in his starboard-side bunk to find the morning sun streaming through the port-hole.
Synonyms of skipper
Forms of skipper
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | skippers |
| alternative form | skip |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | skippers |
| present participle | skippering |
| past participle | skippered |
| past | skippered |
Origin of skipper
From Middle English skippere, skyppere, scippere, borrowed from Middle Dutch scipper, schipper, from Old Dutch *skipāri, from Proto-Germanic *skipārijaz. Piecewise doublet of shipper, from ship + -er.
From Middle English skippere, skyppare, equivalent to skip + -er.
Probably from Welsh ysgubor (“a barn”).
Words formed from skipper
- skipper-bird
- skipperless
- skipperly
- skippership
- cheese skipper
- chequered skipper
- dingy skipper
- Essex skipper
- European skipper
- fiery skipper
- grass-skipper
- grizzled skipper
- iris-skipper
- large chequered skipper
- large grizzled skipper
- large skipper
- long-tailed skipper
- Lulworth skipper
- mudskipper
- palmetto skipper
- paradise skipper
- sand-skipper
- sedge-skipper
- shield-skipper
- silver-spotted skipper
- small skipper
- water skipper
- zestos skipper
Words that rhyme with skipper
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about skipper
- What does skipper mean?
- Skipper means the master of a ship.
- What is skipper in Persian?
- Skipper in Persian is ناخدا (nâxodâ). See Skipper meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is skipper?
- Skipper can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce skipper?
- Skipper is pronounced /ˈskɪp.ə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of skipper?
- The plural of skipper is skippers.
Words near skipper in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: skipper (page history and authors); Skipper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-skipper.ogg.
Cite this entry: “skipper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skipper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.