| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| flap |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  fl p |
| NOUN: | 1. A flat, usually thin piece attached at only one side. 2. A projecting or hanging piece usually intended to double over and protect or cover: the flap of an envelope. 3a. The act of waving or fluttering: the flap of the flag in the wind. b. The sound produced by this motion. 4. A blow given with something flat; a slap. 5. A variable control surface on the trailing edge of an aircraft wing, used primarily to increase lift or drag. 6. Either of the folded ends of a book jacket that fit inside the front and back covers. 7. Medicine Tissue that has been partially detached and used in surgical grafting to fill an adjacent defect or cover the cut end of a bone after amputation. 8. Linguistics A sound articulated by a single, quick touch of the tongue against the teeth or alveolar ridge, as (t) in water. Also called tap1. 9. Informal A commotion or disturbance: a flap in Congress over the defense budget. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: flapped, flap·ping, flaps
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To wave (the arms, for example) up and down. 2. To cause to move or sway with a fluttering or waving motion. 3. To hit with something broad and flat; slap. 4. Informal To fling down; toss. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To move or sway while fixed at one edge or corner; flutter: banners flapping in the breeze. 2. To wave arms or wings up and down. 3. To fly by beating the air with the wings. 4. Informal To become upset or flustered. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English flappe, slap.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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