flipper

«flipper» in Mova's school dictionary: a flat, wide limb that seals, turtles, penguins and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a flipper, flippers)

meaning for a pupil

1) A flipper is a flat, wide limb that seals, turtles, penguins and dolphins use for swimming. tree →

2) Flippers are long rubber shoes like fins that people wear on their feet to swim faster. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons on adaptation, flippers help sea animals swim; in everyday life children wear flippers when snorkelling. Phrases: «a pair of flippers», «flap its flippers».

examples

• The seal waved its flipper. tree →
• Turtles use their front flippers to swim. tree →
• I wore flippers and a snorkel at the beach. tree →
• A penguin's wings work like flippers. tree →
• Flippers help you swim faster. tree →
• The dolphin slapped the water with its flipper. tree →
• Don't walk fast in flippers; you'll trip. tree →
• And all that time he never set flipper on dry ground. tree →

note

Countable, often «a pair of flippers». Also called «fins» for swimming. A flipper is an adapted arm or leg, not a fish fin.

In the corpora

• Sea turtles cannot pull their heads or flippers into their shells, because their streamlined swimming shells have no room inside.
• The closest living land relatives of whales are hippos, and a whale's flipper has the same bones as your arm and hand.
• Penguins are birds: they have feathers and lay hard-shelled eggs, but use their wings as flippers.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «flipper» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.