Examples
“The republicans, meanwhile, would prefer to use a sledgehammer where a flyswatter is appropriate.”
“But then, the flyswatter was a fine invention too, and we don't need that anymore either.”
“A home video of Drake Dixon sitting in his car seat in a Costco parking lot while perfectly lip-syncing Boots On and wailing away on a blue guitar-shaped flyswatter became a viral sensation in country music circles.”
“She rubbed her nose with the business end of a flyswatter.”
“Mr. Murakami, who lives near a hilltop shrine overrun by flies from several frozen-fish warehouses, spends his days shooing the insects away with a red flyswatter and smoky incense.”
The Wall Street Journal: Japan Military Targets New Enemy: Flies
“In actuality, a cow-tail switch is equal to a flyswatter.”
“Howard honors composer Shelly Manne's flyswatter aim with wire brushes on a cover of 1954's "Flip" for a skeletal trio.”
“Like Miyagi in the original, Han plays briefly at trying to catch a fly with a pair of chopsticks -- but then abruptly pulls out a flyswatter and smashes the insect.”
The Washington Post: Lessons from 'The Karate Kid' -- Japan out, America down, China on the rise
“There's little doubt where the flyswatter was made, but by the end of the movie one might wonder: Was that a joke or a warning?”
The Washington Post: Lessons from 'The Karate Kid' -- Japan out, America down, China on the rise
““Get lost,” Reena snaps, like a flyswatter on a fly.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flyswatter’.
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My Dogs' Words
treat, potty, outside, mommie, mommielina, mommierenee, kisses, yes, no, love, sit, down and 186 more...
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Australian
words not found in other
dictionaries,these are from Macquarie
Dictionary and not playable in
scrabbleabdul, abdulled, abdulling, abi, abiu, ablactate, absinthial, absinthian, absoluter, acalypha, acanthodian, acaroids and 5128 more...
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Lattice
tabernacle-work, tracery, reseau, reticle, karyomitome, treille, reticulation, filigree, graticule, cagework, wickerwork, network and 44 more...
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pterodactyl is a windbag
very, lie, flyswatter, hypercorrection, dr, Chile, Julia Gillard, hi there!, Hawai'i, comfortable, second, what time and 2 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flyswatter.
chained_bear Excellent point, leather-ears. Very cogently put. Nov 12, 2010
bilby Around these parts I would say it is the t and double t that make the distinction, i.e. -water cannot sound the same as -watter as vowels tend to be broader before a single consonant and shorter before a double consonant. Like the difference between hole and holler, or skite and skitter, or halo and hallo, or huge and and hugger, and so on. Nov 10, 2010
milosrdenstvi A jovial chap, drinking icewater,
Once remarked while regarding a flyswatter,
"Though a marvelous means
To smash up insect spleens
It's terribly bad as a rice-wadder." Nov 9, 2010
chained_bear Maybe it has to do with the "finishing" sound of each word, e.g. "fly" is going to have a long-I sound no matter what follows it, because it's the end of that word. "Ice" wouldn't, because it's the S-sound that finishes that word.
I bet qroqqa has something better. Nov 9, 2010
pterodactyl Okay, that makes sense. The two words are pronounced differently after all. Whew!
But this raises a new question. Why are the two words pronounced differently? That is, why does the [s] in flyswatter not shorten the preceding vowel in the same way that the [s] in icewater does? Nov 9, 2010
chained_bear qroqqa (as always) put it better than I could, but I concur: where you mentally place the S-sound has an effect on the preceding vowel.
I think I may have posted a similar conundrum re: "writer" vs. "rider" (for Americans who don't pronounce the T as a T but more like a D). But I can't remember where (and it isn't on either writer or rider). Nov 8, 2010
qroqqa The difference is detectable. A voiceless consonant significantly shortens a preceding vowel, so the vowel of [aɪs] is shorter than that of [flaɪ]. The difference is retained in compounds. Nov 8, 2010
pterodactyl Does this word rhyme with icewater? On paper, , it seems as if it should -- they both end in [aɪswɔːɾər] -- but I just can't agree. There's something unrhymable about these two words.
I think it has something to do with the location of the [s]. In "icewater", the [s] is the coda of the first syllable. In "flyswatter", the [s] is part of the onset of the second syllable.
But should that really make a difference? If I spoke these two words to someone who'd never heard them before, and didn't know what the words mean or how they're spelled, that person would have no idea whether the [s] belongs to the first syllable or the second syllable.
This implies, in turn, that rhyming can sometimes depend on the etymology of words, and that conclusion freaks me out. Nov 8, 2010