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Glite Dictionary
🦁 Animal caretaker 👨‍👧‍👦 Group manager
zookeeper

zookeeper

1 5.3
A person who keeps a large noisy group in order, usually children
  • noun
  • /ˈzuːˌkɪpər/
  • Informal
translation icon : cuidador
  • The zookeeper's benign expression changes at the sight of the chaos inside.

Examples

  • "Family is an entire colony of penguins, a young girl and her single mom, a zookeeper and the animals he tends, and two male penguins and their adopted egg.

    Blog text (5)

  • "We are not zookeepers," he said.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Typical stuff like, stay put, find a zookeeper, go up to a mom with kids in a stroller.

    Blog text (21)

  • Even Newt agrees with me, and in my compassionate view of the world, I think he would’ve made a helluva zookeeper.

    Blog text (26)

  • As the children ran around the playground, the teacher felt like a zookeeper trying to keep the wild animals in check.

  • When the field trip group became too loud, the guide had to act as a zookeeper to restore order.

  • At the birthday party, the host joked that managing the excited kids was like being a zookeeper at feeding time.

How Controlling

taskmaster
8 7.2
supervisor
346 2.8
zookeeper
  • Informal
1 5.3
to chaperone
10 5.5
caretaker
60 1.9

Surface Forms

zookeeper singular
zookeepers plural

Morphology

zookeeper = zoo + keeper (semi-transparent) = zoo + keeper

Derived from 'zoo' + 'keeper' but used metaphorically for managing a noisy or disorderly group, which is an extended sense.

Etymology

Zookeeper is also used as a joke or informal name for someone who tries to manage a large, noisy group. Think of it as 'keeping' a crowd like animals, which is why people call someone who controls many noisy children a zookeeper.