I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bird flaps its wings (= it moves its wings up and down )
▪
The baby birds were trying to flap their wings.
a cat flap (= a special door for a cat to go in and out of a house )
▪
The cat was getting too fat to fit through the cat flap.
be blowing/swaying/flapping etc in the wind
▪
The trees were all swaying in the wind.
cat flap
flap its wings (= move them )
▪
The ducks woke up and flapped their wings.
wings flap
▪
Dusky wings flapped overhead.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
cat
▪
I hear the thump of the cat flap as Cat O'Fun tumbles through it without the feline grace of his fellows.
▪
Became confident and prised the cat flap open again.
▪
One craftily claws her stocking by the Big Cat flap .
▪
It's only a matter of time till he learns to use the cat flap .
▪
Somebody had left me a note, though, through the cat flap in my flat door.
wing
▪
The evidence indicated that wing flaps were in the retracted position at the time of impact.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
All we could hear was the flap of the sails.
▪
Kelly resigned over a flap about videotaping interviews with job seekers.
▪
The return address was on the flap of the envelope.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Cars and lorries hooting, accelerating and braking put Dawn into a real flap .
▪
He prefers to suffer quietly through the periodic flaps.
▪
Remembering the cup in her pocket, she pressed her hand over the flap to hide it.
▪
The flap over the name is only the latest that has made Marana the butt of local jokes.
▪
The headgear was so tight around the forehead that my brain began to ache, but the ear flaps dangled.
▪
They had thick flat soles, to each side of which was stretched a straight flap of leather.
▪
Two hours later, when the flaps of the box folded down, the antenna unfurled.
▪
With undercarriage down and full flap these symptoms are further exaggerated, and the speed comes back to below eighty.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
▪
The thing flapped around like a sail in a transatlantic yacht race, you could have gone surfing on it.
▪
I went flapping around like Charlie Chaplin to my first night of work.
▪
Birds came and flapped around the body.
▪
Yellow, withered bean leaves rustled on the plants and flapped around on the ground.
▪
I like this - in high winds there's no chance of the flysheet flapping around or flying over the tent.
▪
The bat flapped around his misshapen hat and took off into the dark.
▪
A butterfly was flapping around the wheelbarrow looking for a fragrance to match the colour of that great metallic flower.
■ NOUN
breeze
▪
She made her silent vow to the piece of wallpaper that flapped in the breeze .
▪
The fenders flapped in the breeze , and the engine coughed and wheezed like an old man on his last legs.
▪
His shirt-tails flapping in the breeze , he faced the green at an angle of forty-five degrees and sliced every shot.
▪
Huckleberry's tongue was protruding out of the corner of his mouth and flapping in the breeze !
wind
▪
A sailing ship was passing, its mylar sails flapping in the gusty wind .
▪
The quarterback wears a green plaid shirt that flaps in the late-afternoon wind .
▪
The Headmaster still had on his gown and he flapped in the wind like a bat as he charged across the grass.
▪
Duvall followed closely behind, coat flapping in the wind and the rain.
▪
One morning a loose cord was flapping in the wind , cracking the canvas alongside his ear.
▪
And the Linwood plant a graveyard, grass growing between the assembly lines, corrugated-iron roofs flapping in the wind .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
sb's ears are flapping
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
The ship's sails flapped in the wind.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
A pair of night birds circled above, the flapping of their wings and their eerie screeches penetrating the thickening mist.
▪
Gloria lead Dot up the outside steps from the basement to look at the cotton flags flapping in the sun.
▪
Her wings flapped, and the duck took immediate flight.
▪
His shirt-tails flapping in the breeze, he faced the green at an angle of forty-five degrees and sliced every shot.
▪
Intangible winds gripped the wizard's robe, flapping it out in eddies of blue and green sparks.
▪
She watched the next scene; nurses running towards a hospital, their unbuttoned navy-blue coats flapping over pale uniforms.
▪
With his arm on the window well, he cruised down the street, the breeze flapping his sleeve.