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Glite Dictionary
🕊️ To move up and down 🕊️ A quick movement ✉️ A loose piece ✈️ A wing part 😰 To act nervously 😰 A nervous state 🩹 A tissue piece 👅 To tap tongue
to flap

to flap

1 9.2
To make a sound by quickly touching the tongue to the area behind the top front teeth
  • verb
  • /flæp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : articular una vibrante simple

Examples

  • Halfbaby thinks that, flap down, he looks like a half-basset, but he is gone before she can say so.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • My tongue flaps faster than a hummingbird's wings.

  • She just wasn't willing to tell you? Blizzard used his big right hand to demonstrate lips flapping.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The underlying cartilage and nasal mucosa remained viable, which made the paramedian forehead flap an appropriate recommendation for reconstruction.

    Academic text (2006)

  • When pronouncing the word 'butter', many speakers flap the letter 't' by tapping their tongue against the roof of their mouth.

  • To clearly pronounce 'ladder', you must flap the 'd' sound quickly with your tongue against the alveolar ridge.

  • In some dialects, speakers flap the 't' in 'water', making it sound more like a soft 'd'.

Idioms

to flap one's gums
  • Informal
2 8.7

Talk a lot about things that do not matter

Compounds

tent flap
1 2.9

A piece of cloth like a door that opens and closes at a tent entrance

pocket flap
1 3.5

A piece of cloth that covers a pocket opening to keep things safe and make the pocket look neater

flap flap
6.8

The repeated sound wings make when they move

landing flap
  • Specialized
5.5

A part under a plane wing that moves down to give more lift and slow the plane when landing

How Trilled

rolling
  • Specialized
2 7.6
tapping
22 1.9
to flap
  • Specialized
1 9.2

Surface Forms

flap infinitive
flapped past
flapped past participle
flapping present participle
flaps third person singular

Etymology

In speech, flap describes the quick tongue motion that touches the roof of the mouth once, as in the American pronunciation of 'butter'. So to flap a sound is to strike the tongue quickly, making a short, soft consonant.