Word.ws English Dictionary

flap

UK/flæp/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/flap/

flap noun: anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.

flap: anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily...
Image: Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

flap (plural flaps)

  1. 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.
  2. A hinged leaf.
    • the flaps of a table
    • the flap of a shutter
  3. A hinged surface on the trailing edge of the wings of an aeroplane, used to increase lift and drag.
  4. A side fin of a ray.
    Synonyms:
    wing
  5. 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
  6. 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.”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
  7. A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound /ɾ/ in the standard American English pronunciation of body.
    Synonyms:
    tap
  8. A piece of tissue incompletely detached from the body, as an intermediate stage of plastic surgery.
  9. (in plural, slang, vulgar) The labia, the vulva.
  10. (obsolete) A blow or slap (especially to the face).
    • Ware the horn and heels lest they fling a flap to thee.1450, Palladius on Husbondrieː
    • 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.
  11. (obsolete) A young prostitute.
    • Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. […] Come hither, you foule flappes.1631, James Mabbe, Celestina, IX. 110
  12. A connected component of the induced subgraph formed by deleting a set of vertices.

Verb

flap (third-person singular simple present flaps, present participle flapping, simple past and past participle flapped)

  1. (transitive) 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.
  2. (intransitive) To move loosely back and forth.
    • The flag flapped in the breeze.
  3. (intransitive) 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.2011 September 29, Tom Rostance, “Stoke 2 - 1 Besiktas”, in BBC Sport
  4. (transitive) To pronounce (something) as a flap consonant.
  5. (intransitive) To be pronounced with a flap consonant.
  6. (intransitive) To be advertised as being available and then unavailable (or available by different routes) in rapid succession.
  7. (African-American Vernacular) To talk, especially in a manner seen as excessive, nagging or annoying.
    • She stay flappin' at me.

flap meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

flap in Hindi

to flap, flutter
फड़फड़ाना phaṛphaṛānā

flap in Tamil

சிறகு, வார்ப்பட்டை இதழ், அடியொலி, மடிப்பு, பட்டை, மடிப்புப்பட்ட

flap in Marathi

फ्लॅप, फ्लॅप करा, फ्लॅप करण्यासाठी

flap in Urdu

دامن, پلا, پھڑ پھڑاہٹ, پھڑ پھڑانا
More languagesFewer languages
flap in Bengali
ফ্ল্যাপ, ফ্ল্যাপ করুন, ফ্ল্যাপ করা
flap in Malayalam
ചിറകടിക്കുക, അടിക്കുക, ചെവി വട്ടംപിടിക്കുക, കടയുന്ന ശബ്ദം
flap in Kannada
ಮುಚ್ಚಳ, ಕದ, ಬಡಿತ, ಹೊಡೆಯುಲಿ
flap in Punjabi
ਫਲੈਪ, ਫ਼ਲੈਪ, ਫਲੈਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
flap in Gujarati
ફફડવું phaphaḍvũ
flap in Odia
ଫ୍ଲାପ୍, ଫ୍ଲାପ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
flap in Nepali
फ्ल्याप, फ्ल्याप गर्नुहोस्, फ्ल्याप गर्न
flap in Arabic
رَفْرَف rafraf
flap in Vietnamese
vạt, vạt áo
Kashmiri
ٹٲسؠ ṭạ̄s'

Examples of flap in a sentence

  • The hairs guide the pollinating insect to the base of the petal, where there is a purplish nectary covered by a flap of tissue.1998 October, Robert H. Mohlenbrock, “Twin Peaks”, in Natural History, volume 107, number 8, page 73:
  • 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.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • He could be flapping his tongue about you right this minute to anybody who'll bloody listen.2004, Robert Jordan, New Spring, page 316:

All 40 example sentences with flap

Synonyms of flap

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of flap

Forms of flap

Noun
pluralflaps
Verb
third-person singular presentflaps
present participleflapping
past participleflapped
pastflapped

Plural of flap: flaps

Origin of flap

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.

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.

Words formed from flap

Phrases with flap

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with flap

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about flap

What does flap mean?
Flap means anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.
What is flap in Hindi?
Flap in Hindi is फड़फड़ाना (phaṛphaṛānā). See Flap meaning in Hindi.
How do you use flap in a sentence?
The hairs guide the pollinating insect to the base of the petal, where there is a purplish nectary covered by a flap of tissue.
What part of speech is flap?
Flap can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce flap?
Flap is pronounced /flæp/ (UK).
What is the plural of flap?
The plural of flap is flaps.

Words near flap in the dictionary

  1. Flansburg
  2. Flansburgs
  3. Flansy
  4. flaouna
  5. flaounes
  6. flap
  7. flap copies
  8. flap copy
  9. flap display
  10. flap doodle
  11. flap doodles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flap (page history and authors); फड़फड़ाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); flap (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flap (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flap (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flap (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flap (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flap (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); flap (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flap (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flap (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-flap.ogg.

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