flap
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /flæp/
rhymes: -æp
Forms: form: flaps
Etymology: From Middle English flap, flappe (“a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap”), related to Saterland Frisian Flappert (“wing, flipper”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a blow; slap on the face; fly-flap; flap”) (modern Dutch flap (“flap”)), Middle Low German flabbe, vlabbe, flebbe, from the verb (see below). Related also to English flab and flabby.
Senses: examples: text: a flap of a garment
text: The envelope flap seemed curiously wrinkled.
text: Again, Beside these parts destin'd to divers offices, there is a peculiar provision for the wind-pipe, that is, a cartilagineous flap upon the opening of the Larynx or Throttle, which hath an open cavity for the admiffion of the air
ref: 1686, Sir Thomas Browne, chapter VIII, in The Works of the Learned Sr. Thomas Brown: Containing, Enquiries Into Vulgar and Common Errors, etc, book IV:
text: The hairs guide the pollinating insect to the base of the petal, where there is a purplish nectary covered by a flap of tissue.
ref: 1998 October, Robert H. Mohlenbrock, “Twin Peaks”, in Natural History, volume 107, number 8, page 73:
glosses: Anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.
examples: text: the flaps of a table
text: the flap of a shutter
glosses: A hinged leaf.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A hinged surface on the trailing edge of the wings of an aeroplane, used to increase lift and drag.
synonyms: wing
glosses: A side fin of a ray.
examples: text: the flap of a sail
text: the flap of a wing
text: Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: The motion of anything broad and loose, or a sound or stroke made with it.
examples: text: The comment caused quite a flap in the newspapers.
text: “[…] We saw him vanish right in front of the rest of us. He was there and then he wasn’t. We were to wait for a year for his return or for some message. We waited. Nothing.” / Calvin, his voice cracking: “Jeepers, sir. You must have been in sort of a flap.”
ref: 1962, Madeleine L’Engle, “Absolute Zero”, in A Wrinkle in Time, New York, N.Y.: Ariel Books, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Ariel Books, 1973 printing, →ISBN, page 167:
text: The current Middlesex grand jury […] is once again on the case, partly as the result of the public flap created by Brill's death and, of course, by the series of articles written by Corsetti in the month after Brill's demise.
ref: 1980 April 19, Mitzel, “Barbre Murder Grand Jury: Puccini Outtake”, in Gay Community News, page 1:
synonyms: word: ado
word: argy-bargy
word: bangarang
word: bobbery
word: brouhaha
word: bunfight
word: bustle
word: bust-up
word: chaos
word: clamour
word: clatter
word: commotion
word: disruption
word: disturbance
word: flap
word: foofaraw
word: fracas
word: furor
word: fuss
word: hobbleshaw
word: hoo-ha
word: hoo-hah
word: hubbub
word: hullabaloo
word: hurly-burly
word: kerfuffle
word: mayhem
word: merry hell
word: outcry
word: palaver
word: pandemonium
word: pother
word: quarrel
word: riot
word: rowdydow
word: ruckus
word: rumpus
word: shemozzle
word: shindy
word: splatterdash
word: stir
word: stooshie
word: three-ring circus
word: to-do
word: tomfoolery
word: trouble
word: tumult
word: turmoil
word: unrest
word: uproar
word: upstir
glosses: A controversy, scandal, stir, or upset.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
synonyms: tap
glosses: A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound /ɾ/ in the standard American English pronunciation of body.
topics: medicine
sciences
surgery
glosses: A piece of tissue incompletely detached from the body, as an intermediate stage of plastic surgery.
glosses: The labia, the vulva.
examples: 1450, Palladius on Husbondrieː
Ware the horn and heels lest they fling a flap to thee.
a1500 The Prose Merlinː
The squire lift up his hand and gave him such a flap that all they in the chapel might it hear.
glosses: A blow or slap (especially to the face).
examples: text: Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. […] Come hither, you foule flappes.
ref: 1631, James Mabbe, Celestina, IX. 110:
glosses: A young prostitute.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A connected component of the induced subgraph formed by deleting a set of vertices.
Hyponyms: blown flap
Fairey-Youngman flap
Fowler flap
Gouge flap
Junkers flap
plain flap
slotted flap
split flap
Derived terms: sense: aeroplane
word: flaperon
word: alloflap
word: beef flaps
word: beflapped
word: bookflap
word: butter flap
word: cap-flap
word: cat flap
word: cellar flap
word: cowl flap
word: dog flap
word: doorflap
word: earflap
word: eyeflap
word: fanny flaps
word: fireman's flap
word: flap copy
word: flap doodle
word: flap-doodle
word: flap-eared
word: flap gate
word: flapjack
word: flapless
word: flaplike
word: flapling
word: flappish
word: flappity
word: flappy
word: flaps and seals
word: flap seat
word: flap steak
word: flaptrack
word: flip-flap
word: flyflap
word: French flap
word: Gundersen flap
word: Gurney flap
word: in a flap
word: Krueger flap
word: lip flap
word: majestic flap-flap
word: majestic flap flap
word: majestic sea flap flap
word: majestic sea flap-flap
word: meat flaps
word: miniflap
word: mudflap
word: mud flap
word: mutton flaps
word: nan flap
word: pet flap
word: piss flap
word: piss-flap
word: plap
word: swirl flap
word: tail flap
word: Zap flap
Related terms: fold
lappet