Definition of "flap" in Anglais

noun

1. Anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved.

   • a flap of a garment
   • The envelope flap seemed curiously wrinkled.

2. A hinged leaf.

   • the flaps of a table
   • the flap of a shutter

3. (aviation) A hinged surface on the trailing edge of the wings of an aeroplane, used to increase lift and drag.

4. A side fin of a ray.

5. The motion of anything broad and loose, or a sound or stroke made with it.

   • the flap of a sail
   • the flap of a wing

6. A controversy, scandal, stir, or upset.

   • The comment caused quite a flap in the newspapers.

7. (phonetics) A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound /ɾ/ in the standard American English pronunciation of body.

8. (surgery) A piece of tissue incompletely detached from the body, as an intermediate stage of plastic surgery.

9. (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) The labia, the vulva.

10. (obsolete) A blow or slap (especially to the face).

    • 1450, Palladius on Husbondrieː Ware the horn and heels lest they fling a flap to thee.
    • a1500 The Prose Merlinː The squire lift up his hand and gave him such a flap that all they in the chapel might it hear.

11. (obsolete) A young prostitute.

12. (graph theory) A connected component of the induced subgraph formed by deleting a set of vertices.

verb

1. (transitive) To move (something broad and loose) up and down.

   • The crow slowly flapped its wings.
   • Startled, the wood pigeon flew off, its wings flapping noisily.

2. (intransitive) To move loosely back and forth.

   • The flag flapped in the breeze.

3. (soccer, intransitive) For a goalkeeper to weakly attempt to play a flighted ball with the hands, failing to control it.

4. (phonetics, transitive) To pronounce (something) as a flap consonant.

5. (phonetics, intransitive) To be pronounced with a flap consonant.

6. (computing, telecommunications, intransitive, of a resource or network destination) To be advertised as being available and then unavailable (or available by different routes) in rapid succession.