Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A hand-held device for
swatting flies or otherinsects , tokill orshoo them.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an implement with a flat part (of mesh or plastic) and a long handle; used to kill insects
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The republicans, meanwhile, would prefer to use a sledgehammer where a flyswatter is appropriate.
Senators call for regime change in Iran, but differ on how 2009
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But then, the flyswatter was a fine invention too, and we don't need that anymore either.
WASN'T THE GRASS GREENER A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories Holland, Barbara 1999
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In actuality, a cow-tail switch is equal to a flyswatter.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
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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.
Japan Military Targets New Enemy: Flies Daisuke Wakabayashi 2011
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Howard honors composer Shelly Manne's flyswatter aim with wire brushes on a cover of 1954's "Flip" for a skeletal trio.
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In actuality, a cow-tail switch is equal to a flyswatter.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
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She rubbed her nose with the business end of a flyswatter.
Molasses Sean Lovelace 2011
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In actuality, a cow-tail switch is equal to a flyswatter.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
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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.
On the verge: Country's Randy Houser puts his 'Boots On' 2009
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In actuality, a cow-tail switch is equal to a flyswatter.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word flyswatter
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.
November 8, 2010
qroqqa commented on the word flyswatter
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.
November 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
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).
November 8, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word flyswatter
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?
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
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.
November 9, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word flyswatter
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."
November 10, 2010
bilby commented on the word flyswatter
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.
November 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
Excellent point, leather-ears. Very cogently put.
November 12, 2010