kipper
1 Americannoun
-
a fish, especially a herring, that has been cured by splitting, salting, drying, and smoking.
-
this method of curing fish.
-
a male salmon during or after the spawning season.
verb (used with object)
-
kippers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
kippered,
past participle, past
-
kippering
present participle
noun
noun
-
a fish, esp a herring, that has been cleaned, salted, and smoked
-
a male salmon during the spawning season
-
archaic an Englishman
verb
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
kippersimple
-
kipperssimple
-
have kipperedperfect
-
has kipperedperfect
-
am kipperingprogressive
-
are kipperingprogressive
-
is kipperingprogressive
-
have been kipperingperfect progressive
-
has been kipperingperfect progressive
Past
-
kipperedsimple
-
had kipperedperfect
-
was kipperingprogressive
-
were kipperingprogressive
-
had been kipperingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of kipper1
before 1000; Middle English kypre, Old English cypera spawning salmon, apparently derivative of cyperen of copper, i.e., copper-colored
Origin of kipper2
First recorded in 1835–45, kipper is from the Wiradjuri word gibirr “man”
Vocabulary lists containing kipper
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The meat has been described as tasting like a cross between kipper and steak or "salty goose" and, less flatteringly, as "rotten leather and fishy beef", external.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
He’s holding a kipper; he’s holding a potted plant.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2021
My Dundonian mother is pretty competitive when it comes to our traditional Christmas games – no one flips a kipper further or faster.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 18, 2020
Faced with dilemmas like that, wouldn’t you prefer a fantasy about a smoked kipper?
From Washington Post ● Jul. 23, 2019
He began to tear again at the half-eaten kipper.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
We learned that kippers is a whole herring that has been sliced in half, gutted, salted or pickled, then smoked and was once popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
From Salon ● May 12, 2023
Some lean toward continental fare, including Ye Landmark’s UK-based crisps ‘n’ kippers, Nordiska’s Scandinavian housewares and kitchen goods, and Marina Market’s aisles of imported licorice candy and Northern European beers, cheeses and meats.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2021
Fergus Henderson’s kippers A brace of kippers makes the perfect start to the day.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 29, 2015
But he writes that he misses the restaurant car, complete with soup, steak and kippers.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2013
That some people willingly eat kippers and eggs for breakfast is a fact that others may find hard to swallow.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
"If this had happened then, I think we would have been kippered," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2025
Smoked fish that requires refrigeration, such as lox, nova-style, kippered, or jerky, is considered precarious for those who are pregnant because, like deli meat, it could be contaminated with listeria.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2021
Drawing inspiration from Sephardic culture and Spanish cuisine, I'm making escabeche salmon, my take on kippered salmon.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2011
A schmaltzy piece of kippered salmon with some nice "belly" lox: my idea of breakfast.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2010
Bismarck herring, or kippered herring, acts in the same way.
From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
All the processes of gutting, curing, and kippering go on in grand style.
From Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Daniel Turner Holmes
She 201 has seen the kippering done, ever since she wore ankle tights.”
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
Then Norman went away, and Christine put back in its place the kippering suit, and took out her very prettiest selling suit.
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
“I’ll not let that order slip through my fingers,” she cried, “I’m going to the kippering, and what I canna do, Christine can manage, following my say-so.”
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
She hoped that her effort to take her mother’s place in the kippering shed would put a stop to the fisherwives’ opinion that she was “setting hersel’ up aboon them a’.”
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
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