flappers

Noun (1)

flapper (plural flappers)

1. (colloquial, historical) A young girl usually between the ages of 15 and 18, especially one not "out" socially.
   • Stud's eyes roved. Plenty of girls, most of them young flappers, Loretta's age. Only a couple of years ago they were kids.1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 16, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan
2. (colloquial, historical) A young woman, especially when unconventional or without decorum or displaying daring freedom or boldness; now particularly associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s.
   • I paid violent and unusual attention to a flapper all through the meal in order to make you jealous. She's probably in her cabin writing reams about me to a fellow-flapper at this very moment.1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Baker’s Dozen”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 107

Noun (2)

flapper (plural flappers)

1. One who or that which flaps.
   • It seems the minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing; for which reason, those persons who are able to afford it always...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa...
2. A young game bird just able to fly, particularly a wild duck.
   • Small fish, and frog and fish spawn are also eaten, and the ducklings feed upon many species of animalculæ, flies, pollywogs and worms, etc., disturbed by heavy rains which wash the banks, while the young ducks are passing to the "flapper" stage.1904, F. Henry Yorke, "Our American Game Birds: Their Life History and Mode of Hunting Them," Field and Stream, Vol. 9, no. 3 (July 1904), pp. 255—56
3. A flipper; a limb of a turtle, which functions as a flipper or paddle when swimming.
   • the flapper of a porpoise1876, Arabella B. Buckley, A Short History of Natural Science and of the Progress of Discovery from the Time of the Greeks to the Present Day
4. A flapper valve.
   • In this case, slide the collar of the flapper over the overflow tube until it seats against the bottom of the flush valve.2004, David Day, Albert Jackson, Popular Mechanics Complete Home How-to, page 356

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