zigouiller

French

Etymology

Originally a dialectal word meaning “to cut something with a bad knife”, from zigue-zigue (“bad knife”), ultimately onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zi.ɡu.je/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

zigouiller

1. (transitive, slang) to bump off, to do in (to kill)

   Synonym: tuer

Conjugation

Conjugation of zigouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	zigouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	zigouillant /zi.ɡu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		zigouillé /zi.ɡu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	zigouille /zi.ɡuj/	zigouilles /zi.ɡuj/	zigouille /zi.ɡuj/	zigouillons /zi.ɡu.jɔ̃/	zigouillez /zi.ɡu.je/	zigouillent /zi.ɡuj/
	imperfect	zigouillais /zi.ɡu.jɛ/	zigouillais /zi.ɡu.jɛ/	zigouillait /zi.ɡu.jɛ/	zigouillions /zi.ɡuj.jɔ̃/	zigouilliez /zi.ɡuj.je/	zigouillaient /zi.ɡu.jɛ/
	past historic2	zigouillai /zi.ɡu.je/	zigouillas /zi.ɡu.ja/	zigouilla /zi.ɡu.ja/	zigouillâmes /zi.ɡu.jam/	zigouillâtes /zi.ɡu.jat/	zigouillèrent /zi.ɡu.jɛʁ/
	future	zigouillerai /zi.ɡuj.ʁe/	zigouilleras /zi.ɡuj.ʁa/	zigouillera /zi.ɡuj.ʁa/	zigouillerons /zi.ɡuj.ʁɔ̃/	zigouillerez /zi.ɡuj.ʁe/	zigouilleront /zi.ɡuj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	zigouillerais /zi.ɡuj.ʁɛ/	zigouillerais /zi.ɡuj.ʁɛ/	zigouillerait /zi.ɡuj.ʁɛ/	zigouillerions /zi.ɡu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	zigouilleriez /zi.ɡu.jə.ʁje/	zigouilleraient /zi.ɡuj.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	zigouille /zi.ɡuj/	zigouilles /zi.ɡuj/	zigouille /zi.ɡuj/	zigouillions /zi.ɡuj.jɔ̃/	zigouilliez /zi.ɡuj.je/	zigouillent /zi.ɡuj/
	imperfect2	zigouillasse /zi.ɡu.jas/	zigouillasses /zi.ɡu.jas/	zigouillât /zi.ɡu.ja/	zigouillassions /zi.ɡu.ja.sjɔ̃/	zigouillassiez /zi.ɡu.ja.sje/	zigouillassent /zi.ɡu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	zigouille /zi.ɡuj/	—	zigouillons /zi.ɡu.jɔ̃/	zigouillez /zi.ɡu.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• zigouillage

Further reading

• “zigouiller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• grouilliez