flapping
part of speech
verb, the -ing form of «flap» (flap, flaps, flapped, flapping); adjective (flapping); noun (flapping)
meaning for a pupil
1) Flapping means moving wings or arms up and down quickly. tree →
2) Flapping means moving loosely back and forth, like a flag or a sail in the wind. tree →
3) Flapping (informal, British) can mean being nervous and worried, in a flap. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on flight, birds fly by flapping their wings; some birds glide without flapping. In everyday life, flags, tents and washing flap in the wind. In stories it shows wind, movement or panic. Phrases: «flapping wings», «flapping in the wind», «stop flapping».
examples
- The bird was flapping its wings to take off. tree →
- The flag was flapping in the strong wind. tree →
- The tent door kept flapping all night. tree →
- Ducks were flapping and splashing on the pond. tree →
- Stop flapping, we'll find your keys! tree →
- He ran around flapping his arms like a chicken. tree →
- Hummingbirds keep flapping their wings very fast. tree →
- The tame crow stood in the door-way flapping her wings. tree →
note
Double «p»: flap, flapped, flapping. Noun «flap» can mean a loose cover, like an envelope flap or a cat flap. In science, a hummingbird flaps its wings many times each second; problems may ask how many flaps in a given time (multiply).
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.
- In autumn they fly about 10,000 kilometres to Africa, soaring on rising warm air instead of flapping.
- Flapping pushes air down and back, so the bird is pushed up and forward.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «flapping» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.