dewlap

/ˈdjuː.læp/US/ˈdu.læp/

dewlap noun: the pendulous skin under the neck of an ox, or a similar feature on any other animal.

Noun

dewlap (plural dewlaps)

The pendulous skin under the neck of an ox, or a similar feature on any other animal.
- 1901 – 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
  Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame.
- I need new clothes.
  Okay. How come?
  Because girls seem to like it when boys wear more than one type of shirt. Why is that?
  I guess so they can get a sense of your style. It says something about a person.
  Like how some iguanas flare their colorful dewlaps to attract a mate.
  Exactly... like that. I...2017, Brian Tanen, “Julia Says” (5:30 from the start), in Michael Patrick Jann, director, Atypical, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Sam, Julia (Keir Gilchrist, Amy Okuda), via Netflix
The sagging flesh on the throat of an elderly human.
- He ended up looking at himself in the mirror. His image stared back at him. He was developing a dewlap - a definite dewlap. He waggled under his chin scornfully with his fingers.2017, Bernard MacLaverty, “Chapter 2”, in Midwinter Break, page 36

dewlap meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Sanskrit

dewlap in Telugu

pendulous skin under the neck of an ox, or a similar feature on any other animal: గంగడోలు gaṅgaḍōlu

dewlap in Sanskrit

a dewlap: कम्बल kambalá

More languagesFewer languages

dewlap in Arabic: غَبَب ḡabab, لُغْد luḡd

Forms of dewlap

plural	dewlaps

Origin of dewlap

From Middle English dewlappe. The first element may be dew (and if not, seems to have been altered by folk etymology to resemble it); the second element is lap (“loose fabric”), Old English læppa (“a loose hanging piece”); compare jellop and jowlop (from jowl + lap), and dewclaw. Compare old Norwegian and Danish doglæp (the modern Danish word for "dew" is dug, but compare Old Norse dǫgg (“dew”) and Norwegian dogg). Old English instead terms such skin the frǣtlæppa (whence Middle English fresh-lappe).

Words formed from dewlap

Questions about dewlap

What does dewlap mean?: Dewlap means the pendulous skin under the neck of an ox, or a similar feature on any other animal.
What is dewlap in Tamil?: Dewlap in Tamil is அசைதாடை, அலைதாடி. See Dewlap meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is dewlap?: Dewlap is a noun.
How do you pronounce dewlap?: Dewlap is pronounced /ˈdu.læp/ (US).
What is the plural of dewlap?: The plural of dewlap is dewlaps.

Words near dewlap in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dewlap (page history and authors); dewlap (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पोळी (Marathi) (page history and authors); कम्बल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dewlap.wav.

Cite this entry: “dewlap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dewlap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.