flypaper

[flahy-pey-per]

noun

paper designed to destroy flies by catching them on its sticky surface or poisoning them on contact.

Origin of flypaper

First recorded in 1840–50; fly² + paper

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for flypaper

Contemporary Examples of flypaper

More begets more, and spending tends to stick at higher levels, which is why the phenomenon is known as “the flypaper effect.”
The Great Medicaid Swindle
Nick Gillespie
October 24, 2013

Historical Examples of flypaper

Its driver was the boy who had brought the flypaper and "Job."
The Woman-Haters
Joseph C. Lincoln
Well, say, a kitten with four feet stuck in the flypaper didn't have anything on me.
Torchy, Private Sec.
Sewell Ford
"Yes, it is; and flypaper is made from my sticky pine gum," said the tree.
Uncle Wiggily in the Woods
Howard R. Garis
It seemed his one best bet, the only way to get his feet out of the flypaper.
By Advice of Counsel
Arthur Train
But he kept on and drew nearer and nearer, breathing hard and gathering flies like a flypaper.
The Wheels of Chance
H. G. Wells

British Dictionary definitions for flypaper

flypaper

noun

paper with a sticky and poisonous coating, usually hung from the ceiling to trap flies

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for flypaper

1851 (though the item itself is said to have become commonly available in London in 1848), from fly (n.1) + paper (n.).