flap  (fl ăp)
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n.1. a. A projecting or hanging piece usually attached to something on one side and often intended to protect or cover: the flap of an envelope. b. Either of the folded ends of a book jacket that fit inside the front and back covers. c. A variable control surface on the trailing edge of an aircraft wing, used primarily to increase lift or drag. d. Medicine A piece of 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. 2. a. The act of waving or fluttering: the flap of the flag in the wind. b. The sound produced by this motion. 3. 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. 4. Informal A commotion or disturbance: a flap in Congress over the defense budget. 5. Archaic A blow given with something flat; a slap. v. flapped, flap·ping, flaps v.tr.1. To move (wings or arms, for example) up and down. 2. To cause to move or sway with a fluttering or waving motion: The wind is flapping the tent fly. 3. To cause to strike against something: flapped the paper on the table. v.intr.1. a. To move wings or the arms up and down. b. To fly by beating the air with the wings: The crow flapped away. 2. To move or sway while fixed at one edge or corner; flutter: banners flapping in the breeze.
[Middle English flappe, slap.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
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