Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A broad flexible part, such as a flipper.
- noun A young woman in the 1920s whose dress and behavior showed disdain for conventional norms.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun plural Hinged channelod irons attached to the top of the low portion of the door of a landau. When up, they support the door-glass frame: when the glass is lowered, they fall flat upon the door-bar.
- noun In crustaceans, the tail, or the telson together with the appendages of the last abdominal segment.
- noun One who or that which flaps.
- noun A reminder; something designed to fix or divert the attention: in allusion to the flappers of Laputa. See extract from Swift, above.
- noun A young bird when first trying its wings; especially, a young wild duck which cannot fly, but flaps along on the water.
- noun Same as
flapper-skate . - noun plural Very long shoes worn by negro minstrels.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who, or that which, flaps.
- noun See
Flipper . - noun (Zoöl.) a European skate (
Raia intermedia ).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun That which flaps.
- noun A
flipper . - noun plumbing A flapper valve in a toilet-flushing mechanism.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a young woman in the 1920s who flaunted her unconventional conduct and dress
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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If you've spent your time in the boardroom telling Donald that Mary should be fired, that she's an emotional bitch who can't keep her mouth shut and her big fat flapper is bringing down the team's morale, do not say that you have respect for her.
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But the Charleston didn't hit till 1923, and the word flapper had been used as early as 1920.
Futures Imperfect Willis, Connie 1994
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The metal buckles had jangled and flapped, which is how the name flapper came about.
Futures Imperfect Willis, Connie 1994
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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Margaret Mitchell had been a genuine "flapper" - blackballed from the Junior League for a "daring" French apache dance she performed at an Atlanta ball.
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But the flapper was the flapper; and it was the only way ever to see that tomb.
Bunker Bean Harry Leon Wilson 1903
atapizdun commented on the word flapper
Flappers were a "new breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.1
Flappers had their origins in the period of Liberalism, social and political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper
May 2, 2012