Zapper

//ˈzæp.ə(ɹ)// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A remote control for a television. colloquial

    "The news is starting on the other channel; hand me the zapper."

  2. 2
    an electrical device that can injure or kill by means of electric currents wordnet
  3. 3
    A device that electrifies or electrocutes. colloquial

    "Miranda is not the sort of person to carry a zapper but she has an oar that would cause a dog a lot more grief if it caught it full on."

  4. 4
    Anything that exterminates. broadly, colloquial, figuratively

    "If games are your life, the choice of a joystick is desperately important. Casual alien-zappers can get by with the cheapest generic Taiwanese clone-stick […]"

  5. 5
    A microwave oven. slang

    "I hate to spoil your microwave testimonial, but they were actually cooked in the regular oven this morning and just re-heated in the zapper."

Synonyms

All synonyms
remoteremote control

Example

More examples

"The news is starting on the other channel; hand me the zapper."

Etymology

From zap + -er.

Related phrases

bug zapperremote control

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.