aflap

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ flap.

Adjective

aflap (not comparable)

Flapping.
- 1894, George Lansing Raymond, The Aztec God, Act 3, in The Aztec God and Other Dramas, New York: Putnam, 1908, p. 66,^[1]
  and she / A vulture feasting with foul wings aflap
- 1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People‎^[2], Auckland: Spiral, published 1985, Part 3, Chapter 7, p. 292:
  nodding her head firmly, headscarf aflap
- 2013, Richard House, “The Hit”, in The Kills‎^[3], London: Picador, page 806:
  […] a woman in a gaberdine comes staggering out from the roadside, hands aflap, shoeless but on the run.
Filled (with something flapping).
- 1908, Eugene Wood, Folks Back Home‎^[4], 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^[5], 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.
(colloquial) Showing excessive excitement or anger.
Synonym: in a flap
- 1977, Niel Hancock, Calix Stay, New York: Fawcett Popular Library, p. 93,^[6]
  “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,^[7]
  […] 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 […]