zoplankton.html - {n.} A defense in a sport (as basketball or football) in which each player has to defend a certain area. * /The coach taught his team a zone defense because he thought his players weren't fast enough to defend against individual opponents./

zoplankton.html - {v. phr.}, {slang} 1. To fall asleep very quickly. * /Can I talk to Joe? - Call back tomorrow, he zonked out./ 2. To pass out from fatigue, or alcohol. * /You won't get a coherent word out of Joe, he has zonked out./

zoplankton.html - {v. phr.} 1. To rapidly close in on (said of airplanes and birds of prey). * /The fighter planes zoomed in on the enemy target./ 2. To make a closeup of someone or something with a camera. * /The photographer zoomed in on the tiny colibri as it hovered over a lovely tropical flower./

zoplankton.html - adjective and noun ( Lifestyle and Leisure ) adjective: Of trousers for women: cut wide at the top, with folds of material at the hips, and tapered into a narrow ankle. noun: (In the plural zouaves) women's trousers of this design. Etymology: Named after the Algerian Zouave regiment of the French army, who wore a uniform with trousers of this shape (known as peg-top trousers) in the middle of the nineteenth century. History and Usage: This is an example of an old word which has been revived in modern fashion and applied in a slightly different context. In the late nineteenth century there was a fashion for garments of various kinds ( particularly women's short jackets and men's peg-top trousers) which copied the uniform of the Zouave regiment and were known as Zouave jacket , Zouave trousers, etc. When wide-topped, draped trousers became a fashion item for women in the 1980s, the word was reapplied to them , and this time round also came to be used as a noun in its own right. First came the ankle-length Zouaves, looking a bit like baggies gone berserk, worn under two layers of fitted , belted coats with full skirts, Russian peasant hats with tassels and ankle-high boots. Then came the shorter Zouaves, like knee-length bloomers. Washington Post 22 Apr. 1981, section B, p.
3 Zouave pants with elasticated waist and two pockets. Grattan Direct Catalogue Spring-Summer 1989, p. 218

zoplankton.html - noun
(Music) (Youth Culture) An exuberant style of popular music originating in Guadeloupe in the French Antilles and combining ethnic and Western elements. Etymology : Reputedly a borrowing from Guadeloupean creole zouk, a verb meaning 'to party', possibly influenced by US slang juke or jook 'to have a good time'. History and Usage: Zouk was developed by Guadeloupean musicians in Paris at the end of the seventies as a deliberate attempt to construct a distinctive Antillean style of popular music which could hold its own against Western pop. It was also designed to compete with disco music, especially in Paris, where its main proponents (a group named Kassav) have been popularizing it during the eighties. It was only towards the end of the decade that zouk started to get exposure in the UK and the US. Zouk is often used attributively, especially in zouk music, and occasionally forms the basis for derivatives such as zoukish. His latest, 'Kilimandjaro' (AR1000) nosedives into held-back zoukish rhythms that never let go, wimpy vocals and over the top arrangements. Blues & Soul 3 Feb. 1987, p.
27 Tonight, the first ever zouk on British soil kicks off this year's Camden Festival International Arts programme...Zouk, especially Kassav, is the pulse of Paris streets and the soundtrack for her nightclubs. Guardian 24 Mar. 1987, p. 11

zoplankton.html - n.
1 a a belt of the heavens limited by lines about 8

from the ecliptic on each side, including all apparent positions of the sun, moon, and planets as known to ancient astronomers, and divided into twelve equal parts (signs of the zodiac), each formerly containing the similarly named constellation but now by precession of the equinoxes coinciding with the constellation that bears the name of the preceding sign: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn(us), Aquarius, Pisces. b a diagram of these signs.
2 a complete cycle, circuit, or compass. [ME f. OF zodiaque f. L zodiacus f. Gk zoidiakos f. zoidion sculptured animal-figure, dimin. of zoion animal]