flapper
Americannoun
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flappers
plural
noun
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a person or thing that flaps
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(in the 1920s) a young woman, esp one flaunting her unconventional dress and behaviour
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of flapper
Explanation
A flapper was a certain type of woman in the United States in the 1920's. Flappers were known for their unconventional style and behavior. In the United States in the 1920s, a certain kind of woman emerged: the flapper. Flappers had their own hairstyles and ways of dressing, especially bobbed hair and short skirts. They liked to listen to jazz and generally embraced freedom from social conventions. None of this was considered "ladylike" at the time: it was new and shocking. Flappers were a sign of changing times and more freedom for women to express themselves. There's no doubt the flappers had a lot of style.
Vocabulary lists containing flapper
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
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American History - Middle School
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American History - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fans dressed in approximations of her floaty ballgowns and 1920s flapper dresses, hollering lyrics like mantras.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
President Donald Trump hosted a “Great Gatsby” themed party for Halloween, complete with tuxedos, flapper dresses, jazz covers and cocktails that evoked the opulence of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Roaring Twenties.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025
“It,” employed in this way, first appeared in a 1927 novella by Elinor Glyn, which became a silent film starring the red-haired flapper Clara Bow, arguably history’s first “It Girl.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Underneath, dresses of scalloped sequins and draped fringe recall flapper looks with contemporary discipline.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2024
“So you wasn’t gonna say a word. You was gonna leave your big flapper shut and leave me do the talkin’.
From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
Next steps from the robotics perspective will include working with material scientists to equip the flappers with muscle-like materials.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2023
In what ways were flappers a reaction to World War I?
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
He also capitalized on other novelties, installing a soda fountain that drew the flappers of the 1920s and staging pogo stick demonstrations on the store’s roof.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2021
Sibling chorus girls go to Paris and live like their mother and aunt who were 1920s flappers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
It was light and floaty, with thin shoulder straps, the type of outfit I imagined flappers with boyish figures wore for a night out at a speakeasy or a dance hall.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
