Word.ws English Dictionary

win one for the Gipper

win one for the Gipper verb: to do something in memory of another person.

win one for the gipper: to do something in memory of another person
Image: President (1981-1989 : Reagan). White House Photographic, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

win one for the Gipper (third-person singular simple present wins one for the Gipper, present participle winning one for the Gipper, simple past and past participle won one for the Gipper)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something in memory of another person.

Forms of win one for the Gipper

third-person singular presentwins one for the Gipper
present participlewinning one for the Gipper
past participlewon one for the Gipper
pastwon one for the Gipper

Origin of win one for the Gipper

Attributed to Knute Rockne, coach of the Notre Dame football team, during a 1928 American football game between Notre Dame and the Army. During a half-time talk to his team, who were losing the game, he encouraged the team with the death-bed speech of former player George "The Gipper" Gipp: : "I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy." Popularized by the 1940 film Knute Rockne, All American, which starred future President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, as George Gipp.

Questions about win one for the Gipper

What does win one for the Gipper mean?
Win one for the Gipper means to do something in memory of another person.
What part of speech is win one for the Gipper?
Win one for the Gipper is a verb.
What is the past tense of win one for the Gipper?
The past tense of win one for the Gipper is won one for the Gipper.

Words near win one for the Gipper in the dictionary

  1. win back
  2. win big
  3. win by a nose
  4. win liao lor
  5. win on Sunday, sell on Monday
  6. win one for the Gipper
  7. win one's spurs
  8. win or lose
  9. win out
  10. win over
  11. win round

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: win one for the Gipper (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.

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