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)
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:
A veritable slap in the face with a wet kipper.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2022
It was a kipper – a smoked fish – wrapped in plastic.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 23, 2019
In a speech last week to party members during his party leadership campaign, Johnson brandished a kipper fish and pointed to its freezer packaging to ridicule the absurdity of European Union regulation.
From Reuters ● Jul. 23, 2019
Note the custom vest, kipper tie, and high collar in matching fabric.
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2016
Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
"Every culture has their own techniques to preserve fish, so we thought to take this kippers idea and turn it into a global gateway of ingredients."
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
If it’s imitation crab meat or nothing where you are, then I’d switch completely to smoked whitefish from the deli, or canned sardines and kippers.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2020
To eat it, you fry it in a bit of oil, finish with butter, if you want to go the full hog, then serve with runny fried eggs and smoked fish – kippers or haddock.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 5, 2020
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
She expressed a delight which she cannot be supposed to have felt at the sight of salmon, fried, cold, kippered; ham, eggs, fowl, farles of home-made bread, oat-cake, honey, jam, butter.
From The Northern Iron by Birmingham, George A.
These fish were the last of the season, and were thus undergoing the process of kippering.
From Malcolm by MacDonald, George
“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 Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
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 Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
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 Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
She 201 has seen the kippering done, ever since she wore ankle tights.”
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
