aflap

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English

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Etymology

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From a- +‎ flap.

Adjective

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aflap (not comparable)

  1. Flapping.
    • 1894, George Lansing Raymond, The Aztec God, Act 3, in The Aztec God and Other Dramas, New York: Putnam, 1908, p. 66,[1]
      and she / A vulture feasting with foul wings aflap
    • 1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People[2], Auckland: Spiral, published 1985, Part 3, Chapter 7, p. 292:
      nodding her head firmly, headscarf aflap
    • 2013, Richard House, “The Hit”, in The Kills[3], London: Picador, page 806:
      [] a woman in a gaberdine comes staggering out from the roadside, hands aflap, shoeless but on the run.
  2. Filled (with something flapping).
    • 1908, Eugene Wood, Folks Back Home[4], New York: The McClure Company, page 46:
      They walked up Main Street, which was all aflap with American flags []
    • 1962, James Kirkup, chapter 10, in These Horned Islands[5], New York: Macmillan, page 152:
      Clothes-drying lofts, open frameworks on the flat roofs of houses, all aflap with clothes, sheets, kimono, reminded me of Canaletto’s pictures of Venetian life []
    • 2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, London: Serpent’s Tail, published 2005, page 118:
      [] the buses bursting with cackling passengers three times over capacity and aflap with chickens.
  3. (colloquial) Showing excessive excitement or anger.
    Synonym: in a flap
    • 1977, Niel Hancock, Calix Stay, New York: Fawcett Popular Library, p. 93,[6]
      “First he says we isn’t welcome, then he’s all aflap cause some of us is gone.”
    • 1994, Bernice Morgan, Waiting for Time, St. John’s, NL: Breakwater, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 53,[7]
      [] people are barely over our givin’ that extra quota of cod to the French, now they’re all aflap about selling spawny caplin to the Japanese []