zippo

1. not comparableslangZero; 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

1. emphaticinformalnot comparableZero. 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.

present singular third person zippos · participle present zippoing · participle past zippoed · past zippoed · alternative Zippo

1. slangtransitiveTo 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

   2 more examples

   Once the last villagers had left Ben Suc, the buildings were doused with petrol and zippoed.

   2009, Nigel Cawthorne, Vietnam

   The youth climbed off, Zippoed a wick in a glass bottle and walked towards Jake's flat.

   2012, Tom Knox, The Lost Goddess

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. slanggovernmentA boat, tank, etc. equipped with flamethrowers.

present singular third person Zippos · participle present Zippoing · participle past Zippoed · past Zippoed

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of zippo.