aflap

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English

Etymology

From a- +‎ flap.

Adjective

aflap (not comparable)

  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
    • 1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People‎, Auckland: Spiral, published 1985, Part 3, Chapter 7, p. 292:
      nodding her head firmly, headscarf aflap
    • 2013, Richard House, “The Hit”, in The Kills‎, London: Picador, page 806:
      […] a woman in a gaberdine comes staggering out from the roadside, hands aflap, shoeless but on the run.
  2. Filled (with something flapping).
    • 1908, Eugene Wood, Folks Back Home‎, New York: The McClure Company, page 46:
      They walked up Main Street, which was all aflap with American flags […]
    • 1962, James Kirkup, chapter 10, in These Horned Islands‎, New York: Macmillan, page 152:
      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 […]
    • 2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, London: Serpent’s Tail, published 2005, page 118:
      […] the buses bursting with cackling passengers three times over capacity and aflap with chickens.
  3. (colloquial) Showing excessive excitement or anger.
    Synonym: in a flap
    • 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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