FLAPS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flaps mean? 

• FLAPS (noun)
  The noun FLAPS has 1 sense:

1. a movable airfoil that is part of an aircraft wing; used to increase lift or drag

  Familiarity information: FLAPS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLAPS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A movable airfoil that is part of an aircraft wing; used to increase lift or drag

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

flap; flaps

Hypernyms ("flaps" is a kind of...):

aerofoil; airfoil; control surface; surface (a device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flaps"):

landing flap (a flap on the underside of the wing that is lowered to slow the plane for landing)

Holonyms ("flaps" is a part of...):

wing (one of the horizontal airfoils on either side of the fuselage of an airplane)

 Context examples 

When Edith put his fur cap on his head and proceeded to pull the flaps down over his ears, he laughed and said: What are you doin' that for?

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Flaps of tissue that prevent regurgitation of blood from the ventricles to the atria or from the pulmonary arteries or aorta to the ventricles.

(Cardiac Valve, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Hirudotherapy is mainly used in trauma and plastic and reconstructive surgery to salvage tissue flaps and skin grafts whose viability is threatened by venous congestion.

(Hirudotherapy, NCI Thesaurus)

The flaps of the valve are "floppy" and don't close tightly.

(Mitral Valve Prolapse, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

What ship comes sailing home from India, and what English lady is this, married to a growling old Scotch Croesus with great flaps of ears?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Stooping down, he loosened the stirrup-straps, bound his knees tightly to his saddle-flaps, twisted his hands in the bridle, and then, putting the gallant horse's head for the mountain path, he dashed the spurs in and fell forward fainting with his face buried in the coarse, black mane.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If they don't, you could have: • Regurgitation - when blood leaks back through the valve in the wrong direction • Mitral valve prolapse - when one of the valves, the mitral valve, has floppy flaps and doesn't close tightly • Stenosis - when the valve doesn't open enough and blocks blood flow

(Heart Valve Diseases, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

There stood by him, on each side, a young page with flaps in their hands, and when they saw he was at leisure, one of them gently struck his mouth, and the other his right ear; at which he startled like one awaked on the sudden, and looking towards me and the company I was in, recollected the occasion of our coming, whereof he had been informed before.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His forehead was covered by the visor of his fur cap, the flaps of which went over his ears.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And so, old friend, my heart is hot within me, and I long to hear the old battle-cry again, and, by God's truth! if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, here is one who will be right glad to feel the saddle-flaps under his knees.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)