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:
The two-time Emmy winner is developing a film about the animated icon and will star as the doe-eyed flapper, The Times confirmed on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
Fans dressed in approximations of her floaty ballgowns and 1920s flapper dresses, hollering lyrics like mantras.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
Sam Gallagher and Yash Thakkar, both English majors, dub her Jordan—after the flapper and semipro golfer in “The Great Gatsby”—when they learn that she gave up a golf scholarship her freshman year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Nicks strolled in later, fresh from her stint at Clementine’s and still donning her flapper costume.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2025
I dug through my room until I found the flapper headband I’d worn on Halloween.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
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
Lurking behind the era’s glitzy flappers and Wall Street speculators was a collective trauma of both the war and the pandemic.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 13, 2022
I think flappers and waifs could feel the impending doom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2022
The joke, in each instance, begins with the words “Hully gee!” supposedly uttered by one of the flappers.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2019
Go play with the autos and the flappers.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions 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.
