flap
part of speech
verb (flap, flaps, flapped, flapping); noun (a flap, flaps)
meaning for a pupil
1) To flap is to move up and down or from side to side quickly, like a bird's wings or a flag in the wind. tree →
2) A flap is a flat piece of paper, cloth or other material fixed along one side, that covers an opening, like the flap of an envelope or a cat flap. tree →
3) Informally, a flap is a state of worry and fuss: «Don't get in a flap». tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons birds flap their wings to fly; aeroplane wings have flaps. In everyday life envelopes, pockets, tents and lift-the-flap books have flaps; a cat flap lets the cat in. Phrases: «flap its wings», «a cat flap», «lift the flap», «in a flap».
examples
- The bird flapped its wings and flew away. tree →
- The flag flapped in the wind. tree →
- Lick the flap and seal the envelope. tree →
- Our cat comes in through the cat flap. tree →
- My little brother loves lift-the-flap books. tree →
- Don't get in a flap; we have plenty of time. tree →
- The tent flap blew open in the night. tree →
- Quietly he lifted the door-flap and entered in. tree →
note
Regular verb with double «p»: flapped, flapping. Countable noun. «In a flap» is informal for «worried and in a hurry».
In the corpora
- Elephant ears are full of blood vessels, and flapping them cools the blood; African elephants have much bigger ears than Asian elephants.
- Elephants recognise old friends after years apart and greet them noisily with rumbles, ear flapping and trunk touches.
- The alligator snapping turtle lures fish with a pink worm-shaped flap on its tongue and then snaps its jaws shut.
- Sugar gliders are tiny marsupials with skin flaps between their legs that can glide about fifty metres from tree to tree at night.
- In autumn they fly about 10,000 kilometres to Africa, soaring on rising warm air instead of flapping.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «flap» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.