flapper

American  

[flap-er] / ˈflæp ər /

noun

• flappers
  plural

1. something broad and flat used for striking or for making a noise by striking.

2. a broad, flat, hinged or hanging piece; flap.

3. a young woman, especially one who, during the 1920s, behaved and dressed in a boldly unconventional manner.

4. a young bird just learning to fly.

5. Slang. the hand.

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flapper British  

/ ˈflæpə /

noun

1. a person or thing that flaps

2. (in the 1920s) a young woman, esp one flaunting her unconventional dress and behaviour

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• flapperdom
  noun
• flapperism
  noun
• flapperish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• flappers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flapper

First recorded in 1560–70; flap + -er ¹

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flapper flappers

Fans dressed in approximations of her floaty ballgowns and 1920s flapper dresses, hollering lyrics like mantras.

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

Dagwood Bumstead was the scion of a rich family that disowned him when he married Blondie, a flapper — forcing him to take an office job under the irascible J.C.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025

Now, suddenly, he was handed a microphone and enlisted as a simultaneous translator for Karel Lamač’s uproarious Jazz Age comedy about a proper Viennese girl who goes wild as a flapper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025

Nicks strolled in later, fresh from her stint at Clementine’s and still donning her flapper costume.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2025

“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

To replicate the columnar formations of birds, in which they line up one directly behind the other, the researchers created mechanized flappers that act like birds' wings.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2024

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

Just as fascinating is his description of the role that Jazz Age flappers played in reforming gendered dress codes that had held women in thrall to corsets and “cocoons of tulle and taffeta.”

From Slate ● Feb. 10, 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

Related Words

• branch
• rod
• wing