zed
nounverbattested in dialogue
- //zɛd//
The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.
noun
- 1
The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.
Zzz...With all those ʻzedsʼ I'll be sending you to sleep.
- 2
Something Z-shaped.
zed-bar
- 3
Sleep.
I'm going to go get some zeds.
- 4
slangA zombie.
A horde of zeds began to shuffle into the shopping mall.
Etymology
From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew ז (zayin) with influence from βῆτα (bêta), ἦτα (êta) and θῆτα (thêta). The letter had a rare usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.
verb
- 1
informalTo sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)
Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.
I guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.
"Zedding away." "God, I was having the most awful dream. That you'd got lost by the sea and I couldn't find you and something was chasing me, me and Evie."
- 2
rareTo zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.
We were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...
Licking his lips, his hand zedded on my thigh and he commented, penetratingly, that it wasn't pussy, but that driving the unmade road wasn't at all bad.
Forms
- plural
- zeds
- past tense
- zedded
- past participle
- zedded
- present participle
- zedding
- third person singular
- zeds
zed · The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.
Zed · A diminutive of the male given name Zedekiah.Zedd · A surname.zee · The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.