Flap sb.

Forms: 4–7 flappe (6 flepe), 7–8 flapp, 5– flap. [f. next vb.; cf. Du. flap blow, fly-flapper, lid of a can.]

  I.  The action of the vb. FLAP.

  † 1.  A blow, slap, stroke. Also fig. Obs.

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 8083.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 65.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 206.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 382.

  b.  A blow given with something broad and loose (cf. 2). Also fig. † A flap with a fox tail: fig. ? a contemptuous dismissal; a trivial rebuke (cf. FLAP v. 2 d).

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 38. So that he [the lawyer] gaineth alwaies, aswel by encrease of learning, as by storing his purse with money, whereas the other get a warme Sunne oftentimes, and a flappe with a Foxe taile, for all that euer they haue spent.

1598.  Florio, Faggiolata, a flim-flam tale … a flap with a foxetaile.

1653.  A. Wilson, Inconst. Lady, III. i. Liquorish flies do sometimes meet with flaps.

1717.  Will of S. Jackson. If the Beadle make any demand … send him away with a Flapp of a Fox taile.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 17. This Flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his Master in his Walks, and, upon occasion, to give him a soft Flap on his Eyes, because he is always so wrapped up in Cogitation.

1727.  Gay, Lady & Wasp, 7.

a. 1734.  North, Exam., I. ii. § 84 (1740), 75. I found another Flap for the House of Peers.

  2.  ‘The motion of something broad and loose’ (J.), as a wing or a fly-flapper; the noise produced by its motion, or by contact with some other object. Cf. FLAP v. 5.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 9. The flap of a swan’s wing would break a man’s leg; and a similar blow from an eagle has been known to lay a man dead in an instant.

1816.  Byron, Siege Cor., xxii.

1823.  Scott, Peveril, ix. The flap of their wings must have been gracious in the ear of the famished prophet.

1859.  Kingsley, Misc. (1860), I. 152. I can hear the flap and snort of the dogs’ nostrils as they canter round me; and I like it.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. i. 226. A gnat can execute many thousand flaps of its little wings in a second of time.

  II.  Concrete uses.

  † 3.  Something broad to strike with; esp. a fly-flapper. Obs.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 163. Flappe, instrumente to smyte wythe flyys.

c. 1515.  Cocke Lorell’s B. (Percy Soc.), 2. In his hande he bare a flap for flyes.

1558.  Phaer, Æneid, V. Argt. L iv b. Y^e game called Cœstus (which is fighting with bagges or flappes of leather hanging by stringes, wherin is either lead or sand).

1624.  Heywood, Captives, I. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. 110. Clowne. I have brought this flesh-fly whome as soone as the butchers wyves sawe comminge throwghe the shambles, they all of them stood with theire flapps in theire hands like fanns.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 19. A young Man with a Flap came up to my Side, and flapt me gently on the right Ear.

  4.  ‘Anything that hangs broad and loose, fastened only by one side’ (J.).

1522.  Skelton, Why not to Court, 1165.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. i. 36. Thou greene Sarcenet flap for a sore eye.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 131. Antennae; either the greater, with a great, thick, soft, not pellucid bone in the body: or the lesser, which is without such a bone, having small roundish flapps on either side of the body.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4058/6. A Negro Boy … the Flap of one of his Ears being cut off.

1849.  Parkman, Oregon Tr. (1872), 192. I put aside the leather flap that covered the low opening, and stooping, entered the Big Crow’s dwelling.

1891.  Kipling, Light that Failed, x. Torpenhow gave him a letter with a black M. on the envelope flap.

  b.  A pendant portion of a garment, hat, or cap. Hence applied to the garment or hat itself (slang).

1530.  Palsgr., 220/2. Flappe of a gowne, cappe.

1590.  Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), 11.

1632.  Sherwood, The flap, or back point of a friers cowle, cabuēr.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. III. 64. We spread abroad the Flaps of our Coats, and presently the Ship wore.

1707.  Hearne, Collect., 14 Sept. An armfull of y^m he took home, covering them with one flap of his Gown.

1713.  Swift, Frenzy J. Dennis. The flap of his breeches dangled between his legs, and the rolls of his stockings fell down to his ancles.

1792.  Mad. D’Arblay, Lett. to Mrs. Phillips, Nov. A little man, who looked very triste, in an old-fashioned suit of clothes, with long flaps to a waistcoat embroidered in silks no longer very brilliant, sat in a corner of the room.

1875.  Plain Needlework, 18. The old-fashioned shift with flaps.

1892.  C. T. Dent, Mountaineering, iv. 104. He will conduce to the general equanimity by tying the flaps of his hat over his ears.

  c.  Of a saddle; also transf.

1854.  Murchison, Siluria, v. (ed. 5), 95. A geological saddle, having one thin and partly metamorphosed flap only on the east side, and several thick flaps on the west.

1886.  Encycl. Brit., XXI. 141/1. It [the saddle] consists of the tree or skeleton, on which the leather is stretched, the seat, the skirts, and the flaps.

  d.  The tail of a crustacean.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VI. 373. The spawn grows larger, is exuded out of the body, and sticks to the barbs under the flap, or more properly the tail [of the crab].

1842.  H. Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, viii. (ed. 2), 173. The terminal flap of this gigantic crustacean was, as I have said, continuous.

  e.  (See quot.)

1699.  W. Hacke, Collect. Orig. Voy. (1699), III. 62. We have already mentioned those Birds called Pengwins to be about the Bigness of Geese; but upon second Thoughts, to call them Fowls I think improper, because they have neither Feathers nor Wings, but only two Fins, or Flaps, wherewith they are helped to swim.

  5.  Something broad and flat, hanging or working (vertically) on or as on a hinge.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Biforis, Bifore fenestræ … with two flappes.

1754.  A. Murphy, Gray’s-Inn Journal, No. 103, ¶ 9. One Table, the Flap broken.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 140. He makes each sail … to consist of six or eight flaps or vanes … moving upon hinges.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, iv. Its floor was paved with stone and brick, as that of any other cellar might be; and in lieu of window framed and glazed it had a great black wooden flap or shutter, nearly breast high from the ground, which turned back in the day-time, admitting as much cold air as light, and very often more.

1859.  Musketry Instr., 71 The first and second class men (if there is any spare ammunition), should be trained to fire at 300 and 400 yards with the flap of back-sight down, judging for themselves the proper elevation of their rifles.

1867.  Trollope, Chron. Barset, I. iv. 27. In the middle of the room there was a table which had once been large; but one flap of it was gone altogether, and the other flap sloped grievously towards the floor, the weakness of old age having fallen into its legs.

  b.  A valve. Tide flap: a valve used to shut off the tide-water from a sewer.

1824.  R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 151. c, c, c, are the valves or flaps.

1869.  Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Flap, the leather or valve of a pump.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., 55/2. A Collection of Sanitary Iron Work, such as charcoal, ventilators, trapped gullies, flushing valves, tide flaps, &c., of improved patterns and designs, used in the construction of sewers and house drainage.

1892.  Pall Mall G., 7 Sept., 1/3. We descend to the other side of the ‘flap’—the men’s term for a ‘penstock.’

  c.  Anat. † (a) The epiglottis. Obs. (b) In fishes: The operculum or gill-cover; a similar cover for the nostril.

c. 1550.  H. Llwyd, The Treasury of Health, H iv. Agaynst al grefes in the flap beinge in the mouth whyche couereth the wind pipe.

1681.  W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 1224. The cover, or flap of the throat; Epiglossis, epiglottis.

1802.  Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), I. 37. They fill their mouth with water, then throw it backwards with so much force as to lift open the great flap, and force it out behind.

1881.  Günther, in Encycl. Brit., XII. 637. Nostrils of Raia lemprieri, with nasal flaps reverted.

  d.  One of the floats of a paddle-wheel.

1840.  Thackeray, Catherine, vi. The Ensign’s arms were working up and down his face and body like the flaps of a paddle-wheel.

  6.  Something broad and loose, irrespectively of connection with anything else; esp. an overlying layer; a broad piece of any material.

1603.  Florio, Montaigne (1634), 187. We are all framed of flaps and patches and of so shapelesse and diverse a contexture, that every peece and every moment playeth his part.

a. 1634.  Randolph, Hey for Honesty, V. Wks. (1875), 474.

1764.  Foote, Mayor of G., I. Wks. 1799, I. 173. She always helps me herself to the tough drumsticks of turkies, and the damn’d fat flaps of shoulders of mutton.

1843.  Thackeray, Contrib. to ‘Punch,’ Wks. 1886, XXIV. 145. ’Twas but the flap of a shoulder of mutton, which I ate cold. Ibid. (1848), Bk. Snobs, i. We dined with our fingers, and had flaps of bread for plates.

1866.  Daily Tel., 18 Jan., 5/2. Large flaps of swine’s flesh … make their appearance at breakfast.

1884.  Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 114. The great flaps of cork on the cortex of Boswellia papyrifera consist, as already stated, of multiseriate layers of flat cells, which alternate with uniseriate thin-walled cells, with a fine fibrous thickening and silicified walls.

1889.  Barrère & Leland, Slang Dict., Flap (thieves), sheet lead for roofs.

  b.  A large, broad mushroom. Also FLAB.

1743.  Pickering, in Phil. Trans., XLII. 598. The thin Filament is that to which the Edges of the Head of the Mushroom adhere, while it is, what is commonly called, a Button, and from which it separates by expanding to a Flap.

1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 361. Scrape large flaps, peel them, take out the inside, and boil them in their own liquor.

1854.  Eng. Cycl., Nat. Hist., I. 89. At a more advanced age the cap is concave, the colour gray, and the gills black; in this state it [the Common Mushroom] is called a Flap.

  † c.  collect. Scraps. Obs.^–0

1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Flap, moist meat for hogs.

  7.  Surg. a. A portion of skin or flesh, separated from the underlying part, but remaining attached at the base.

1807–26.  S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 377. After each method of extracting cataracts, the utmost attention should be paid to placing the flap of the cornea in regular contact with the part with which it was naturally joined, so that its union may follow without any opacity, or uneven cicatrix.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xii. 127. He was first harpooned, then eviscerated, a flap let down from his forehead ‘to cover his eyes and prevent his seeing again,’—he had the ‘evil eye,’ it might seem; and then small portions of his heart were eaten, so as to make it secure that he could not come back to earth unchanged.

1878.  T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 536. The flaps were reflected and a large gland enucleated.

  b.  A piece of flesh or skin grafted upon an injured or defective part.

1813.  J. Thomson, Lect. Inflam., 225. The mode of repairing noses by a flap or portion of flesh taken from the arm.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 31 Aug., 3/1. The grafting upon the injured … part of flaps of skin taken … from a neighbouring surface.

  8.  pl. in Farriery. A disease in the mouth of horses.

1587.  L. Mascall, Govt. Cattel, II. (1600), 163. Giges or flappes, is pimples or teates in the inside of his [a horse’s] mouth.

1610.  Markham, Masterp., I. xii. 32. Swelling in the mouth, a signe either of canker, flaps, or lampasse.

17[?].  Farrier’s Dict. (J.). When a horse has the flaps, you may perceive his lips swelled on both sides of his mouth.

1847.  Youatt, Horse, viii. 206. The sublingual glands … sometimes enlarge during catarrh or inflammation of the mouth, and are called gigs, and bladders, and flaps in the mouth.

  9.  dial. or slang. A woman or girl of light or loose character.

1631.  Mabbe, Celestina, ix. 110. Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. Ibid., 112. Come hither, you foule flappes.

1892.  Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., A young giddy girl is called a flap, or a woman who does not settle down to her domestic duties.

  III.  attrib. and Comb.

  10.  General relations, as flap-basket, -door, -seat, -trap, -valve, -window (sense 5); flap-eared adj.

1862.  The Saturday Review, XIV. 16 April, 186/2. He goes out to all Lancashire with his little *flap-basket, and doles out to the ten thousand mills his two ounces of tea and a copy of Sally Green, or, the Power of Faith.

1844.  Zoologist, II. 748. The *flap-door of a glass hive is opened.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Flap-door. A manhole door.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. i. 160. Pet. A horson beetle-headed *flap-ear’d knaue.

1891.  Daily News, 4 Feb., 3/4. Mr. Samuel asked why *flap-seats were permitted at Drury-lane Theatre.

1858.  Skyring’s Builders’ Prices, Advt., *Flap Traps … always kept in Stock.

1867.  W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 211. The chambers are fitted … with *flap valves.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 876/2. Flap-valve. A valve which opens and shuts upon one hinged side. A clack-valve.

1825.  Beverley Lighting Act, ii. 19. Leave open … the door, hatchway or *flap-window.

  11.  Special comb.: flap-apple = FLAP-JACK 1 b; flap-dock (also flap-dick, flap-a-dock), local names for the foxglove; flap-fracture = compound fracture; flap-hat, one having flaps or a flapping brim; flap-holder (see quot.); flap-leg, the leg that supports a flap of a table; flap-mouth, a mouth with broad, hanging lips (whence flap-mouthed adj.); flap-operation Med. (see quot. 1884); flap-sight, in a rifle, one that turns up or down on a hinge; flap-wing dial., the swift.

1750.  W. Ellis, Country Housewife, 25. Turnover, or *Flap-Apple, or Meat Pasties.

1846.  E. Anglia Gloss., Suppl., *Flapdock, foxglove.

1658.  A. Fox, trans. Wurtz’ Surg., II. xxvi. 165. I call this a *Flap-fracture, when the Wound of the broken Leg goeth onely through the flesh and skin, and cometh forth with the one end.

1866.  Browning, in Mrs. Orr, Life (1891), 275. A village where the men dress in white from head to foot, with baggy breeches, and great black *flap hats.

1884.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 346/1. *Flap Holder. (Surgical.) A delicate prehensile instrument for holding flaps of sutures in confined situations; in operations for vesico-vaginal fistula, etc.

1882.  Sala, America Revisited, i. 114. A *flap-leg was let down; and at once a table was improvised.

1631.  P. Fletcher, Sicelides, III. iv. F ij b. So, haue you done? Fie *flapmouth. Triton, thou beslauerest mee.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 920.

1602.  2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., IV. ii. (Arb.), 51. Begin thou Furor, and open like a phlaphmouthd hound.

1785.  T. Jones, in Med. Commun., IX. 326 (title), Case of a *Flap Operation, united by first Intention.

1884.  Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v. Flap operation.… A method of amputation in which a variously shaped, but usually more or less oval or rectangular, portion of the skin is reflected from the subjacent soft parts before these and the bones are divided.

1887.  Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain (1888), 66. I armed myself with one of the repeaters—my own: an excellent weapon for this kind of work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and fitted with ordinary *flap-sights instead of the usual cumbersome sliding mechanism which they generally have.

1834.  H. O’Brien, The Round Towers of Ireland, 38. This, it may be said, is applying a steam-engine to crush a *flapwing; yet, as that flapwing has been somewhat troublesome, and has contrived to blindfold some searchers after antiquarian truth, I may be excused if, to frustrate any efforts at impotent revivals, I shall continue decapitating the hydra, until he disappears in his own sinuosities.