zed

name

1. A diminutive of the male given name Zedekiah.

   ““So you changed it.” “Yes.” He turns off the tap. “Why did you choose the name Zed? What does it mean?” “Nothing. It's the last letter of the alphabet.””

noun

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.

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. A zombie.

   “A horde of zeds began to shuffle into the shopping mall.”

verb

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.

1. To 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.”

2. To 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.”