flappers

Cultural  

1. A nickname given to young women in the 1920s who defied convention by refusing to use corsets, cutting their hair short, and wearing short skirts, as well as by behavior such as drinking and smoking in public. (See Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties.)

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Example Sentences

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

In what ways were flappers a reaction to World War I?

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

I think flappers and waifs could feel the impending doom.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2022

The evening started with cocktails and moved to a tent on the museum’s back lawn; many patrons were dressed as flappers to fit the Roaring Twenties theme.

From Washington Post • Nov. 2, 2021

When we went in, the room was already crowded—babies, children of all ages, and women of all kinds: nuns, spike-heeled flappers, lame grandmothers, fat mothers and thin ones, brave ones and sniffling ones.

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz