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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

skipper.

The master of a ship.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. The master of a ship.

  2. A coach, director, or other leader.

  3. The captain of a sports team such as football, cricket, rugby or curling.

  4. Synonym of detective sergeant, especially as a term of direct address.

    UK · informal
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. To captain a ship or a sports team.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. Agent noun of skip: one who skips.

    agent · form-of
  2. A person who skips, or fails to attend class.

  3. One who jumps rope.

  4. 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.

  5. Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira (Pacific saury) and Sprattus sprattus (European sprat).

  6. A young, thoughtless person.

    obsolete
  7. The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly (family Piophilidae), which leaps to escape predators.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English skippere, skyppare, equivalent to skip + -er.

noun/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. A barn or shed in which to shelter for the night.

Where this word comes from

Probably from Welsh ysgubor (“a barn”).

verb/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. To take shelter in a barn or shed.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Probably from Welsh ysgubor (“a barn”).

noun/ˈskɪp.ə/Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[ˈskɪp.ə]Australia, General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskɘp.ɘ/New-Zealand[ˈskɘp.ɘ]New-Zealand
  1. A short-sleeved (or long-sleeved) tee-shirt, or sweatshirt.

    South-Africa
Where this word comes from

Unknown, perhaps related to jumper.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.