different between slap vs flail

English

Etymology

From Middle English slappen, of uncertain origin, possibly imitative. Compare Low German Slappe (“slap”), whence also German Schlappe (“defeat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slæp/
• Rhymes: -æp

Noun

slap (countable and uncountable, plural slaps)

1. (countable) A blow, especially one given with the open hand, or with something broad and flat.
2. (countable) The sound of such a blow.
3. (slang, uncountable) Makeup; cosmetics.

Usage notes

Especially used of blows to the face (aggressive), buttocks, and hand, frequently as a sign of reproach. Conversely, used of friendly strikes to the back, as a sign of camaraderie.

Hyponyms

• cuff

Derived terms

• bitch-slap
• dickslap
• pimp-slap
• slap and tickle
• slap in the face

Translations

Verb

slap (third-person singular simple present slaps, present participle slapping, simple past and past participle slapped)

1. (transitive) To give a slap to.

   She slapped him in response to the insult.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     Mrs. Flanders rose, slapped her coat this side and that to get the sand off, and picked up her black parasol.

2. (transitive) To cause something to strike soundly.

   He slapped the reins against the horse's back.

3. (intransitive) To strike soundly against something.

   The rain slapped against the window-panes.

4. (intransitive, slang) To be excellent.

   The band's new single slaps.

   • 2019, "Glass Battles", PT Music Watch, Issue 1 (2019), page 35:

     There are some cinematic elements, but at the end of the day, the album fucking slaps.

   • 2019, Gloria Perez, "Your Things", Your Mag, April 2019, page 74:

     Also I will never get tired of the song "Motion Sickness" by Phoebe Bridgers. Shit slaps.

   • 2019, Elly Watson, "The Great 2019 Debate", DIY, November 2019, page 59:

     2016's 'Girls Like Me' still slaps to this day.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:slap.
5. (transitive) To place, to put carelessly.

   We'd better slap some fresh paint on that wall.

   • 2018 "The Secret Ceramics Room of Secrets", Bob's Burgers

     Louise Belcher: "On Monday there was supposed to be some big schoolboard inspection or something, so instead of cleaning the place up, what does the principal do? He panics. He and the janitor and the janitor's brother slap a wall where the door used to be."
     Gene Belcher: "Wall slap."

6. (transitive, informal, figuratively) To impose a penalty, etc. on (someone).

   I was slapped with a parking fine.

7. (transitive, informal) To play slap bass on (an instrument).

Hyponyms

• cuff

Derived terms

• slapper
• slap leather
• slap together
• slap-up

Translations

Adverb

slap (not comparable)

1. Exactly, precisely

   He tossed the file down slap in the middle of the table.

   • 1864, Tony Pastor, ?John F. Poole, Tony Pastor's Complete Budget of Comic Songs (page 63)

     They called the tom-cat to the trap, / Who molrowed as he smelt at the door, O— / Opened his mouth and swallowed him slap, / All the while most profanely he swore, O!

Synonyms

• just, right, slap bang, smack dab; see also Thesaurus:exactly

Translations

Anagrams

• ALPs, APLS, APLs, ASPL, Alps, PALS, PALs, PLAs, Pals, Plas, SPLA, alps, laps, pals, salp

Danish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ap

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German slap

Adjective

slap

1. loose
2. limp
3. slack
4. weak (muscles)
5. flaccid
6. lax

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

slap

1. past tense of slippe

References

• “slap” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch slap. Cognate with German schlaff and schlapp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?p/
• Hyphenation: slap
• Rhymes: -?p

Adjective

slap (comparative slapper, superlative slapst)

1. slack
2. weak

Inflection

Derived terms

• slapheid
• slapjanus
• slappeling
• slapperik
• slapte
• verslappen

Anagrams

• plas

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *sl?p. Compare Old English sl?p, Old High German sl?f.

Noun

sl?p m

1. sleep

Declension

Scots

Noun

slap (plural slaps)

1. A gap in a fence.
2. A narrow cleft between hills.

Verb

slap

1. (transitive) To break an opening in.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *solp?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slâ?p/

Noun

sl?p m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. (geology) waterfall

Declension

References

• “slap” in Hrvatski jezi?ni portal

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *solp?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slá?p/

Noun

sl?p m inan

1. (geology) waterfall

Inflection

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /es?lap/, [es?lap]

Noun

slap m (plural slaps)

1. (Peru) flip-flop, thong (Australia), jandal (New Zealand)

   Synonyms: bamba, chancla, (Venezuela) chola, (Argentina) ojota, (Peru) sayonara

English

Etymology

From Middle English flaile, flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fle??l, flegl, from Old English fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz (“flail, whip”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Old French fil and Latin f?lum ("a fine thread or wire, a filament", i.e. a defiling instrument for the thrashing of a wire). Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), Low German vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh?k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek ????????? (pl?gnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plang? (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (instrumental suffix); or a borrowing of Latin flagellum, diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?lag-, *b?la?- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fle?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Noun

flail (plural flails)

1. A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
2. A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.

Synonyms

• threshel, thrashel

Quotations

• 1631 — John Milton, L'Allegro

  When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
  His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
  That ten day-labourers could not end;

• 1816 — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

  Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
  Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail

• 1842 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp

  On him alone the curse of Cain
  Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
  And struck him to the earth!

• 1879 — Henry George, Progress and Poverty, ch V

  If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

Translations

Coordinate terms

• (weapon): nunchaku

Verb

flail (third-person singular simple present flails, present participle flailing, simple past and past participle flailed)

1. (transitive) To beat using a flail or similar implement.
2. (transitive) To wave or swing vigorously

   Synonym: thrash

   • 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Evil Clergyman

     He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.

3. (transitive) To thresh.
4. (intransitive) To move like a flail.

Translations

See also

• flail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)