flapper
Americannoun
noun
-
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
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
This time, I lingered out by the bar, and then, when the flapper girl grabbed me, I joined her dancing in the mosh pit.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
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
Sibling chorus girls go to Paris and live like their mother and aunt who were 1920s flappers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
Three illustrated jokes dealing with the Easter costumes of Avenue A flappers.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2019
‘Lady,’ he said, could you fold your flappers, please?
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
