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flypaper

American

[flahy-pey-per] / ˈflaɪˌpeɪ pər /

noun

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

flypaper British

/ ˈflaɪˌpeɪpə /

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

Etymology

Origin of flypaper

First recorded in 1840–50; fly ¹ + paper

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:

flypaper

It's made of sugars -- acylsugars, to be precise -- and acts as a sort of natural flypaper for would-be pests.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024

Det Con Stephen Williams from Dyfed Powys Police described a cluttered room, with flypaper full of flies next to a 16th birthday balloon and cards.

From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2023

As it is, dozens of them are stuck to a twisted band of sticky flypaper hanging from the ceiling.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2022

Mr. Trentlage, who wrote that and a number of other jingles that have the mental stickiness of flypaper, died on Sept. 21 at the Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill. He was 87.

From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2016

Regular flypaper was sticky and smelled like things flies liked, so they got drawn to it.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023