Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flaps |
FlapsNoun1. A movable airfoil that is part of an aircraft wing; used to increase lift or drag. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flaps" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1613. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | Eng. Rectangular wooden valves about 24 in by 18 in by 1-1/2 in (61 cm by 46 cm by 3.8 cm) thick, hung vertically to the framework of the airchambers of a ventilator. A flap valve. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Flaps are hinged surfaces on the trailing edge of a wing which, when deployed, increase the lift (and drag) of a wing. They are usually used while landing to allow the aircraft to fly more slowly and to steepen the approach to the landing site, but are retracted in normal flight to minimise drag.
Wing trailing-edge flaps extended on an unknown aircraft approaching London (Heathrow) airport.
Larger version
Types include:
- Plain flap - rotates on a simple hinge
- Split flap -
- Fowler flap - slides backwards before hinging downwards
- Slotted flap -
Flap, in (archaic) computer science jargon, refers to the process for unmounting a magnetic tape. When the system operator commanded a tape drive to unmount a tape, it would rewind the medium and then, as the tape unwrapped from the take-up reel, it would go "flap-flap-flap" as the feed reel spun down. Thus the term.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flap."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
FLAPS | English | First LPG Aircraft Power Systems | Mechanical Engineering, Transportation |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: FlapsSynonym: flap (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Hey Flaps, So what we were going to do (The Jungle Book; writing credit: Rudyard Kipling; Larry Clemmons) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Tortilla Flaps (1958) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Type of bedroom ventilating flaps. Chandler, Arizona, project. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He leaned his elbows on the table and shut and opened the flaps of his ears |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The tent was still, and at last Casy spread the tent flaps with his hands and stepped out. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Arcuate incisions with thick flaps, centered over the lesion, are superior to radial incisions, particularly for upper quadrant lesions. (references) | |
Methods for resurfacing the skin have gradually changed the medical and aesthetic outcomes for patients with severely damaged skin. Current grafting techniques may eventually be superseded by tissue engineering methods that produce prefabricated custom flaps of skin that match the size and type of skin needed. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Flaps" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 83.73% of the time. "Flaps" is used about 166 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 83.73% | 139 | 26,913 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 15.66% | 26 | 68,323 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.6% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 166 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "flaps": extended flaps ♦ flaps down ♦ flaps extended ♦ meeting flaps ♦ split flaps ♦ Surgical Flaps ♦ wing flaps. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "flaps": ear-flaps. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "flaps"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 挡水板 (flap). (various references) | |
Danish | vingeklapper (wing flaps), splitklapper (split flaps), sildelapper (butterfly, butterfly fillet, herring flaps, herring side, herring-flap), sammenfoldende flapper (meeting flaps). (various references) | |
Dutch | vleugelkleppen (wing flaps), spreiklep (split flaps), splijtklep (split flaps), aansluitende kleppen (meeting flaps). (various references) | |
Finnish | tuoreet fileet,joiden sivut ovat kiinni toisissaan (fresh flaps), levylaskusiivekkeet (split flaps), levylaipat (split flaps), laskusiivekkeet (wing flaps), laskulaipat (wing flaps). (various references) | |
French | volets d'atterrissage. (various references) | |
German | Schläge (battering, beating, percussions, stingers, whams), Klappen (bang, clap, click, come off, flap, fold, put, rattle, work, work out). (various references) | |
Greek | πτερύγια καμπυλότητας πτέρυγας (wing flaps), εφαπτόμενα πτερύγια (meeting flaps), διαιρούμενα πτερύγια καμπυλότητας (split flaps). (various references) | |
Hungarian | fékszárnyak, féklapok. (various references) | |
Italian | falde combacianti (meeting flaps), wing flaps (wing flaps), split flap (split flaps), ipersostentatori estratti (flaps down, flaps extended), ipersostentatori di intradosso (split flaps), ipersostentatori (wing flaps). (various references) | |
Korean | "랩 (flap). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | apsflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | flaps intradorso (split flaps), flaps da asa (wing flaps), abas a unir (meeting flaps). (various references) | |
Spanish | flaps extendidos (flaps down, flaps extended), flaps de intradós (split flaps), flaps de ala (wing flaps), flaps abajo (flaps down, flaps extended), velocidad de perdida con flaps entrados (stalling speed with flaps retracted), solapas encontradas (meeting flaps). (various references) | |
Swedish | vingklaffar. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "flaps": cowflaps, earflaps, mudflaps. (additional references) | |
| |
"Flaps" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: falp, fals, Ffas, flabs, flahs, flape, flapt, flasa, flass, flipp, flps, fwas, fyap. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "flaps" (pronounced fla"ps) |
| 4 | -l a" p s | claps, collapse, elapse, laps, lapse, relapse, slaps. |
| 3 | -a" p s | caps, chaps, craps, gaps, maps, naps, perhaps, raps, saps, schnapps, scraps, snaps, straps, taps, traps, wraps, yaps, zaps. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-f-l-p-s" | |
-1 letter: alps, flap, laps, pals, salp, slap. | |
-2 letters: alp, als, asp, fas, lap, las, pal, pas, sal, sap, spa. | |
-3 letters: al, as, fa, la, pa. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-f-l-p-s" | |
+1 letter: pilafs. | |
+2 letters: capfuls, felspar, flypast, lapfuls, panfuls, pilaffs. | |
+3 letters: cowflaps, earflaps, feldspar, felspars, flagship, flapless, flappers, flareups, flatcaps, flattops, fleapits, flypasts, flytraps, foolscap, mudflaps, pailfuls, pailsful, palfreys, parflesh, peafowls, pitfalls, plafonds, playoffs, spadeful. | |
+4 letters: amplifies, feldspars, fishplate, flagpoles, flagships, flapjacks, flappiest, flashlamp, fluorspar, flypapers, foolscaps, foreplays, gigaflops, leapfrogs, palefaces, pantofles, pedalfers, planforms, platefuls, platesful, platforms, platyfish, postfault, pratfalls, puffballs, spadefuls, splayfeet, splayfoot. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Abbreviations 15. Acronyms 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
