▪ I. ˈfly-flap
Also 7 -flop.
[f. fly n.1 + flap n.]
1. An instrument for driving away flies.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 167/1 Fly flappe..muscarium. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 153 Thy toung is a flie flap. 1632 Randolph Jealous Lovers ii. iii. Wks. (1875) 94, I said..that you had a brow Hung o'er your eyes like fly-flaps. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) V. 2044 Both sexes make use of the fan, or fly-flap. 1837 Wheelwright tr. Aristophanes I. 297 Erect Holding his leather fly-flap. |
| fig. 1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. v. i. Wks. 1878 II. 129 Ah, the fly-flop of vengeance beate 'em to peeces! a 1683 Oldham Wks. (1686) 55 How Fly-Flap of Church-Censure Houses rid Of Insects. |
† 2. A stroke with a fly-flap; (in quot.) fig., an adroit manœuvre, a cunning prank. Obs.
| a 1735 Arbuthnot Misc. Wks. (1751) I. 67 Not to forget the Quibbles and Fly-flaps he played against his Adversaries. |
¶ The alleged sense = flip-flap 3 a (see quot. 1676 there) is based on a mistake of Strutt (Sports & Past. iii. v. 175).
▪ II. ˈfly-flap, v.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To strike with a fly-flap; to beat, whip.
| 1620 Shelton Quix. II. lx. 405 I giue you my word to beat my selfe and fly-flappe mee when I haue a disposition to it. 1627 Lisander & Cal. vii. 123, I must call my husband to fly-flap you. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 209, I was Fly-flap'd. 1796 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), Flyflapped, whipt in the stocks, or at the cart's tail. |
2. intr. To drive away flies with a fly-flap.
Hence ˈfly-flapping vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1797 Edin. Mag. May 344 Beelzebub, or the Lord of Flies..whom I must renounce with all his works, even that of fly flapping. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. III. 204 There seemed to be nobody about save the fly-flapping boys. |