flipper

From flip +‎ -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Flappert (“flipper, wing”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈflɪpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈflɪpɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpə(ɹ)

flipper (plural flippers)

1. In marine mammals such as whales, a wide flat limb, adapted for swimming.
2. A flat, wide, paddle-like rubber covering for the foot, used in swimming.
3. A flat lever in a pinball machine, triggered by the player to strike the ball and keep it in play.
4. (theater) A small flat used to support a larger one.
   • 1998, Martin Harrison, The Language of Theatre (page 104)

     The flipper is designed to give support by standing at a 90-degree angle to the flat. It probably gets its name from its appearance: cut out like a piece of profile scenery, it resembles the flipper of a marine animal, […]

   • 2013, Jonathan Law, The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre

     When standing alone, a flat may have a small extension, a FLIPPER, for added strength.

5. (cricket) A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce.
6. (informal, US) Television remote control, clicker.
7. (dated, slang) The hand.
   • 1888, Hélène E A. Gingold, Denyse (page 222)

     Give me your flipper, old man, and tell me if I can be of any service to you. I'll do what you want at all hazards.

8. (dentistry) A kind of false tooth, usually temporary.
   • 2005, Washington Appellate Reports: Volume 128

     Dr. Woo attempts to distinguish Blakeslee by pointing out that “one can fondle a breast without having anything to do with dentistry, but one cannot take molds, fabricate and insert flippers into another person's mouth without practicing dentistry."

9. A kitchen spatula.
   • 2009, Amy J. Yowell, The Silent Cry (page 161)

     Remember the mornings when you help me fix eggs and pancakes for breakfast. You always had to use the “flipper” to turn the pancakes and eggs.

10. Someone who flips, in the sense of buying a house or other asset and selling it quickly for profit.
11. Someone who flips in any other sense, for example throwing a coin.

• fin

flipper (third-person singular simple present flippers, present participle flippering, simple past and past participle flippered)

1. To lift one or both flippers out of the water and slap the surface of the water.

• “flipper”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “flipper”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• “flipper”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “flipper” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Borrowed from English flipper.

• IPA^(key): /ˈflɪ.pər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: flip‧per
• Rhymes: -ɪpər

flipper m (plural flippers, diminutive flippertje n)

1. A flipper, a fin (swimming gear).

   Synonym: zwemvlies

2. A flipper (limb-like appendage of an aquatic animal).

   Synonym: vin

3. A flipper, a flipper bumper (lever in a pinball machine for hitting the ball; also the input device for operating this lever).
4. (rare) A pinball machine.

   Synonym: flipperkast

• flipperkast

From English flipper, the part of a pinball machine used to strike the ball up higher on the game surface.

• IPA^(key): /fli.pœʁ/

flipper m (plural flippers)

1. pinball

From English flip (one's lid).

• IPA^(key): /fli.pe/

flipper

1. (colloquial, slang) to freak out

• “flipper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

flipper m (invariable)

1. pinball (game and machine)

• flippare

From French flipper, from English flipper.

flipper n (plural flippere)

1. pinball