Word.ws English Dictionary

zippo

UK/ˈzɪpəʊ/US/ˈzɪpoʊ/

zippo adjective: zero; none whatsoever.

Adjective

zippo (not comparable)

  1. (slang) Zero; none whatsoever.
    • “The whole situation is magnificent news, especially when the problem has been zippo investment by large corporations in Africa,” says Robert H. Bates[…].2007 January 14, G. Pascal Zachary, “Out of Africa: Cotton and Cash”, in New York Times

Noun (1)

zippo (not comparable)

  1. (emphatic, informal) Zero. Typically used for emphasis, as when the listener might expect a positive quantity.
    • We got 200 consoles and we sold 200 consoles and 200 minus 200 is ZIPPO, so I can't sell you anything right now.

Verb (1)

zippo (third-person singular simple present zippos, present participle zippoing, simple past and past participle zippoed)

  1. (slang, transitive) To light on fire.
    • I didn't want to burn 'em out, but that's policy. So we zippoed their hooch.1987, Reuben Noel, Nancy Noel, Saigon for a song
    • Once the last villagers had left Ben Suc, the buildings were doused with petrol and zippoed.2009, Nigel Cawthorne, Vietnam

Noun (2) capitalized: Zippo

Zippo (plural Zippos)

  1. A reusable lighter.
    • He was about to make the farewell flick of the wheel on his faithful Zippo, which had seen him through the Normany hedgerows, the Ardennes, Germany, and postwar America, when he heard a key in the front door, and voices.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 84
  2. (slang) A boat, tank, etc. equipped with flamethrowers.

Verb (2) capitalized: Zippo

Zippo (third-person singular simple present Zippos, present participle Zippoing, simple past and past participle Zippoed)

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of zippo.

Forms of zippo

Verb
third-person singular presentzippos
present participlezippoing
past participlezippoed
pastzippoed
alternative formZippo
third-person singular presentZippos
present participleZippoing
past participleZippoed
pastZippoed
Noun
pluralZippos

Origin of zippo

From zip + -o.

Popular slang among American soldiers in the Vietnam War; from the Zippo brand of lighter.

Trade name for lighters, established in the 1930s.

Words that rhyme with zippo

Questions about zippo

What does zippo mean?
Zippo means zero; none whatsoever.
What part of speech is zippo?
Zippo can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce zippo?
Zippo is pronounced /ˈzɪpəʊ/ (UK).

Words near zippo in the dictionary

  1. zipping down
  2. zipping it
  3. zipping one's lip
  4. zipping up
  5. zippingly
  6. zippo
  7. zippoed
  8. zippoing
  9. zippola
  10. Zipporah
  11. zippos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zippo (page history and authors); Zippo (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-au-zippo.ogg.

Cite this entry: “zippo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zippo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.