zap
Americanverb (used with object)
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zaps,
present (3rd person singular)
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zapped,
past participle, past
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zapping
present participle
-
to bombard with electrical current, radiation, laser beams, etc..
The military has unsuccessfully tried using airborne lasers to zap missiles early in their flight.
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to attack, defeat, kill, or destroy with sudden speed and force.
Late frost can zap tender fruit buds.
Real magic is not about wizards zapping each other with spells.
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to cook or heat in a microwave oven.
This coffee is almost cold—could you zap it for 30 seconds?
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to shoot or send rapidly.
If you're in the neighborhood, zap me a text and come by!
Some of his more complex arguments were not easy to zap into a sound bite.
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to skip over or delete (commercials on TV or radio) in recording or playing back a program.
Digital recorders able to zap commercials made things harder for the advertising industry.
verb (used without object)
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zaps,
present (3rd person singular)
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zapped,
past participle, past
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zapping
present participle
noun
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a jolt or charge of or as if of electricity.
A wire shorted out and he got a zap from his microphone.
These fresh-cut fries have a hint of zesty lime and a zap of tequila.
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an act or period of microwaving.
We sell prepackaged foods that require only a zap in the microwave to make them table-ready.
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a forceful and sudden blow, hit, or attack.
This game character can kill minions and goblins with a zap even after he dies.
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any method of political activism, usually of a disruptive nature.
A gay rights group organized a zap of the restaurant to push for removal of its offensive sign.
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force, energy, or drive; zip.
Their stew is a bit dull, but the steak chili soup packs much more zap and one heck of a lot of meat.
verb phrase
verb
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(tr) to attack, kill, or destroy, as with a sudden bombardment
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(intr) to move quickly; rush
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(tr) computing
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to clear from the screen
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to erase
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(intr) television to change channels rapidly by remote control
noun
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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zapsimple
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zapssimple
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have zappedperfect
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has zappedperfect
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am zappingprogressive
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are zappingprogressive
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is zappingprogressive
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have been zappingperfect progressive
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has been zappingperfect progressive
Past
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zappedsimple
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had zappedperfect
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was zappingprogressive
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were zappingprogressive
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had been zappingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of zap
An Americanism dating back to 1940–45; imitative
Explanation
Something that happens abruptly and dramatically is a zap, like a zap of electricity or a zap of insight, an idea that comes to you in a sudden burst. You can also use zap as a verb to mean "strike forcefully" or " cook in a microwave." So characters in the Star Wars movies zap each other with light sabres, but the only zapping you do is when you zap your cold pizza in the microwave. While some credit the 1940s comic Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century with the first zap, it was probably coined about 20 years earlier.
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:
Next up: electrical muscle stimulation, or EMS, where people wear damp suits covered with electrodes that zap their major muscle groups simultaneously for about 20 minutes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
"I definitely think it could kind of zap you pretty quick with how hot it could get," she said.
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
This isn't a supernatural being that craves blood; energy-vampires refer to friends who seem to zap your energy when you spend time with them.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2025
It can lead to side effects such as a symptom called "brain zap" in which patients feel sudden shocks in their head.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2025
Always had, ever since I’d stuck the tip of a dinner fork into the toaster to pry out an Eggo whole wheat waffle and got a little zap from it.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
It finds the misfiring heart tissue and zaps the electrical nodes causing an irregular heartbeat.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
One unusual symptom is ear zaps, or the sensation of an electrical zap behind one’s ear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
With bright, unexpected flavor, it zaps hunger and buys time to get dinner on the table.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2025
They share tips like prioritizing deadlines, taking on short-term anchor jobs, and ensuring you don’t give all your time to work that zaps your energy.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2024
He heard the birds’ video-arcade trills and zaps and whoops follow him along the side of the creek.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
There are stories of teams that zapped their footballs in the microwave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
If you thought that meant the cast of “Veep” would do the honors for the top comedy award, Annie Murphy’s appearance alongside the Levys quickly zapped that idea.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2024
Technicians had zapped the insects, all males, with radiation in a nearby lab to make them sterile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
They zapped nanocrystals of ruthenium dioxide with high-energy radiation, and then watched the changes wrought by the acidic environment inside the cell.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024
Well, the birds don V like it either Here is a drawing of how to change the wires on a transformer so eagles, owls, hawks, vultures, even blue jays don V get zapped.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
"When a satellite crosses what we observe, it makes a bright streak on our image, zapping whatever is behind it," said ESO astronomer Olivier Hainaut, who led the study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Play as Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, while the game’s credits roll, zapping the names of developers with her laser vision as they scroll past to score extra points you can redeem in the SuperShop.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
After grinding and zapping the dust with lasers, Prof Anand's team hope to answer fundamental questions about how the Moon formed and about the early years of planet Earth.
From BBC ● May 8, 2025
He needs body parts and she can help get those for him, zapping him further back to life with the electrifying tanning bed in her garage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
The light hit Jason’s sword and sprayed outwards in ten separate tendrils, zapping the basilisks.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
