different between skipper vs sleeper

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sk?p.?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sk?p?/
• Rhymes: -?p?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English skippere, skyppere, scippere, borrowed from Middle Dutch scipper, schipper, from Old Dutch *skip?ri, from Proto-Germanic *skip?rijaz. Doublet of shipper.

Noun

skipper (plural skippers)

1. (nautical) The master of a ship.

   Synonyms: master, captain
2. A coach, director, or other leader.
3. (sports) The captain of a sports team such as football, cricket, rugby or curling.

Descendants

• ? German: Skipper

Translations

Verb

skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)

1. (transitive) To captain a ship or a sports team.

Etymology 2

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

Noun

skipper (plural skippers)

1. Agent noun of skip: one who skips.
2. A person who skips, or fails to attend class.
3. (sports) 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.
   • ca. 1864, John Clare, "We passed by green closes":

     Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut

     Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]

5. Any of several marine fishes that often leap above water, especially Cololabis saira, the Pacific saury.
6. (obsolete) A young, thoughtless person.
7. The cheese maggot, the larva of a cheese fly (family Piophilidae), which leaps to escape predators.

Translations

Etymology 3

Probably from Welsh ysgubor (“a barn”).

Noun

skipper (plural skippers)

1. A barn or shed in which to shelter for the night.

Derived terms

• skipper-bird

Verb

skipper (third-person singular simple present skippers, present participle skippering, simple past and past participle skippered)

1. (intransitive) To take shelter in a barn or shed.

Anagrams

• Kippers, kippers

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English skipper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ski.pe/

Noun

skipper m (plural skippers)

1. skipper

Verb

skipper

1. to skipper

Conjugation

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English skipper.

Noun

skipper m (invariable)

1. (nautical) skipper (person in charge of a vessel)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German schipper

Noun

skipper m (definite singular skipperen, indefinite plural skippere, definite plural skipperne)

1. (nautical) a skipper

Derived terms

• fiskeskipper

References

• “skipper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German schipper

Noun

skipper m (definite singular skipperen, indefinite plural skipperar, definite plural skipperane)

1. (nautical) a skipper

Derived terms

• fiskeskipper

References

• “skipper” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -i?p?(r)

Etymology 1

sleep +? -er

Noun

sleeper (plural sleepers)

1. Someone who sleeps.

2. That which lies dormant, as a law.
   • 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Judicature

     Therefore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judged confined in the execution […]

   • 1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting (page 12)

     The object of these provisions is to prevent insertion of "jokers" or "sleepers" in bills and securing passage under the false color of the title.

3. A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
   • 1969, United States Congress, Departments of Treasury and Post Office and Executive Office Appropriations for 1970: Hearings (91st Congress, First Session, parts 2-3, page 479)

     We are up against the pros; and pros who have been involved in this kind of activity for many years. […] The public apathy today is disturbing — few realize, Mr. Chairman, that there are sleepers in this country and we know that they are able to manipulate at will behind the scenes.

4. A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
5. A railway sleeping car.

6. (martial arts, wrestling) A sleeper hold.
7. Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.

   Synonym: sleeper hit

   • 1968, Marvin B. Scott, The Racing Game (page 160)

     For example, the [racehorse] trainer may have tipped a betting syndicate that he is about to unleash a sleeper […]

8. A goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish of the family Odontobutidae.
9. A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
10. A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.

11. (slang) An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.

    Antonyms: cop magnet, rice burner, racecar

12. (slang) A sedative.
13. (slang, gambling) A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.

Synonyms

• (goby-like fish): sleeper goby

Coordinate terms

• (clothing): sleepsack

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sleeper (third-person singular simple present sleepers, present participle sleepering, simple past and past participle sleepered)

1. (rare) To mark a calf by cutting its ear.
   • 1963, Jack Schaefer: Monte Walsh, p 81:

     I expect there ain't a trick to maverickin' and sleeperin' and changin' a brand he don't know.

Translations

Etymology 2

Compare Norwegian sleip (“a sleeper (a timber); as adjective, slippery, smooth”). See slape.

Noun

sleeper (plural sleepers)

1. (rail transport, Britain) A railroad tie.

   Synonym: (US) tie

2. (carpentry) A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
3. (nautical) A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
4. (nautical) The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

Translations

References

• Sleeper in the 1920 edition of Encyclopedia Americana.
• railway sleeper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Leepers, Peelers, peelers, repeels