skipper

Meanings

Noun

• The master of a ship.
• A coach, director, or other leader.
• The captain of a sports team such as football, cricket, rugby or curling.
• one who skips.
• 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.
• Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira (species), the Pacific saury.
• A young, thoughtless person.
• The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly (family Piophilidae (family)), which leaps to escape predators.
• A barn or shed in which to shelter for the night.

Verb

• To captain a ship or a sports team.
• To take shelter in a barn or shed.

Origin

• From Middle English skippere, skyppere, scippere, borrowed from Middle Dutch scipper, schipper, from Old Dutch *skipāri, from Proto-Germanic *skipārijaz. shipper.
• From Middle English skippere, skyppare, equivalent to skip + -er.
• Probably from Welsh ysgubor.