i Register
In some senses, aflap is marked as colloquial. Watch for register when choosing this word.
aflap
adj 3
Collocations
4ADJ.
foul, shoeless
VERB + AFLAP
hands, head, wings
PREP.
on, with
ADV.
firmly
Definitions
adj
1
Flapping.
1894, George Lansing Raymond, The Aztec God, Act 3, in The Aztec God and Other Dramas, New York: Putnam, 1908, p. 66, and she / A vulture feasting with foul wings aflap
nodding her head firmly, headscarf aflap
2
Filled (with something flapping).
They walked up Main Street, which was all aflap with American flags […]
Clothes-drying lofts, open frameworks on the flat roofs of houses, all aflap with clothes, sheets, kimono, reminded me of Canaletto’s pictures of Venetian life […]
3
Showing excessive excitement or anger.
1977, Niel Hancock, Calix Stay, New York: Fawcett Popular Library, p. 93, “First he says we isn’t welcome, then he’s all aflap cause some of us is gone.”
1994, Bernice Morgan, Waiting for Time, St. John’s, NL: Breakwater, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 53, […] people are barely over our givin’ that extra quota of cod to the French, now they’re all aflap about selling spawny caplin to the Japanese […]
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Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
301
1894, George Lansing Raymond, The Aztec God, Act 3, in The Aztec God and Other Dramas, New York: Putnam, 1908, p. 66, and she / A vulture feasting with foul wings aflap
Wiktionary02
nodding her head firmly, headscarf aflap
Wiktionary03
[…] a woman in a gaberdine comes staggering out from the roadside, hands aflap, shoeless but on the run.
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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