flap
noun
- aircraft wing device used to increase lift by extending the trailing edge of the wing
verb
- wave wings to fly
- move back and forth randomly
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /flæp/
noun
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.
- Anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.
“a flap of a garment”
“The envelope flap seemed curiously wrinkled.”
- A hinged leaf.
“the flaps of a table”
“the flap of a shutter”
- A hinged surface on the trailing edge of the wings of an aeroplane, used to increase lift and drag.
- A side fin of a ray.
- The motion of anything broad and loose, or a sound or stroke made with it.
“the flap of a sail”
“the flap of a wing”
- A controversy, scandal, stir, or upset.
“The comment caused quite a flap in the newspapers.”
““[…] 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.””
- A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound /ɾ/ in the standard American English pronunciation of body.
- A piece of tissue incompletely detached from the body, as an intermediate stage of plastic surgery.
- The labia, the vulva.
- A blow or slap (especially to the face).
“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.”
- A young prostitute.
“Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. […] Come hither, you foule flappes.”
- A connected component of the induced subgraph formed by deleting a set of vertices.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English flappen (“to flap, clap, slap, strike”), related to Dutch flappen (“to flap”), German Low German flappen (“to flap”), German flappen (“to flap”), Dutch flabberen (“to flit, flap”). Probably ultimately imitative.
- To move (something broad and loose) up and down.
“The crow slowly flapped its wings.”
“Startled, the wood pigeon flew off, its wings flapping noisily.”
- To move loosely back and forth.
“The flag flapped in the breeze.”
- For a goalkeeper to weakly attempt to play a flighted ball with the hands, failing to control it.
“Former Turkey goalkeeper Rustu Recber flapped at his first Delap throw but was given a soft free-kick by referee Antony Gautier.”
- To pronounce (something) as a flap consonant.
- To be pronounced with a flap consonant.
- To be advertised as being available and then unavailable (or available by different routes) in rapid succession.