Zed

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -É›d

Origin

From Ancient Greek ζῆτα

Full definition of zed

Noun

1. (British, Canadian)
2. Something Z-shaped. Found in compounds such as zed-bar.
3. (British, colloquial) (usually plural) Sleep (as in "get some zeds").

Synonyms

• zee (especially in the US)
• izzard

Verb

1. (intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)
• 1991, Jim Cartwright, BedZedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.
• 1992, David Robins, Tarnished vision: crime and conflict in the inner cityI guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.
• 2007, Polly Williams, The Yummy Mummy"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. (intransitive, rare) To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.
• 1931, Reginald Rankin, The Collected Works of Lt. Colonel Sir Reginald RankinWe were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...
• 1994, Tibor Fischer, The thought gangLicking 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.