Flap

How to spell flap

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce flap

What does flap mean?

1. verbTo move something, especially wings or a flat surface, up and down or back and forth with quick beats.
2. nounA flat piece of material attached on one side that can be lifted or moved to cover an opening.
3. nounA state of nervous agitation, panic, or commotion (chiefly informal).

Flap in a sentence

• verb

  The gulls began to flap their wings against the wind.

• noun

  She sealed the envelope by licking the gummed flap.

• noun

  The whole office was in a flap before the audit began.

• verb

  Loose tarpaulins flap noisily whenever a lorry passes.

• noun

  A small flap of canvas covered the entrance to the tent.

• noun

  There is no need to get into a flap over a simple delay.

Where does flap come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Flap first appears in Middle English around the late 1300s as flappe, and it almost certainly began life as an imitative word, coined to echo the sound of something striking the air or slapping against a surface. Its earliest recorded meaning was actually a blow or a slap, the sort of swat you might give with an open hand, and only later did the sense settle onto the flat, hinged, loosely attached things that make that flapping noise. There are close cousins in the Low German and Dutch words flappen, also meaning to flap or slap, which suggests a shared north European root rather than a borrowing in one direction. The informal sense of being 'in a flap', meaning a fluster or panic, is a much later figurative extension, drawing on the image of frantic, agitated movement. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, the spelling has stayed stable and simple, with the doubled p never in doubt once you hear the final consonant.

How the word is built

• flap (a single root word of imitative origin; no prefix or suffix)