Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that flips.
  • noun A wide flat limb, as of a seal, whale, or other aquatic mammal, adapted for swimming.
  • noun A flat lever in a pinball machine, used to hit the ball so it stays in play.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A limb used to swim with.
  • noun The hand: as, give us your flipper.
  • noun Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes.
  • noun A flapjack; a kind of griddle-cake.
  • noun In a sawmill, a steam-operated device for flipping, upsetting, or throwing over a log, cant, or piece of timber from a set of live rolls to other rolls, or for throwing a log out of the log-slide to the log-deck preparatory to rolling it down the sloping deck to the log-loader.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A broad flat limb used for swimming, as those of seals, sea turtles, whales, etc.
  • noun (Naut.), Slang The hand.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun in marine mammals such as whales, a wide flat limb, adapted for swimming
  • noun a flat, wide, paddle-like rubber covering for the foot, used in swimming
  • noun a flat lever in a pinball machine, used to keep the ball in play
  • noun cricket A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce
  • noun informal, US television remote control, clicker
  • noun dated, slang The hand.
  • noun dentistry A kind of false tooth, usually temporary.
  • verb To lift one or both flipper out of the water and slap the surface of the water

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a shoe for swimming; the paddle-like front is an aid in swimming (especially underwater)
  • noun the flat broad limb of aquatic animals specialized for swimming

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

flip + -er

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Examples

  • A few days after my upper left first bicuspid was yanked, my dentist gave me what he calls a flipper, a dead ringer for a real tooth, aged to match the rest of my flawed set.

    In the Fullness of Time Emily W. Upham 2010

  • In other words, imagine that the coin flipper has a head in his hand.

    13/27 « Gerry Canavan 2010

  • In other words, imagine that the coin flipper has a head in his hand.

    13/27 « Gerry Canavan 2010

  • [2] REST It's hard to imagine an accessory more untrendy than "flipper" - style rests.

    Five Add-Ons to Make Your Compound Bow a Quieter Hunting Machine 2007

  • Reference to the diagrams will show that the tormentors have a "flipper," which runs to the proscenium arch wall; in the flipper is usually a door or a curtained opening for the entrances and exits of acts in One.

    Writing for Vaudeville Brett Page

  • Here’s the problem with the coin example: you’re assuming that the flipper is flipping both coins, and then saying, “One of them is a head.”

    13/27 « Gerry Canavan 2010

  • Here’s the problem with the coin example: you’re assuming that the flipper is flipping both coins, and then saying, “One of them is a head.”

    13/27 « Gerry Canavan 2010

  • A person would have to be a very bad coin flipper to get results that are worse than those shown in the S&P study.

    With Mutual Funds, Nothing Fails Like Success 2010

  • A person would have to be a very bad coin flipper to get results that are worse than those shown in the S&P study.

    With Mutual Funds, Nothing Fails Like Success 2010

  • A person would have to be a very bad coin flipper to get results that are worse than those shown in the S&P study.

    With Mutual Funds, Nothing Fails Like Success 2010

Comments

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  • Cricket jargon - a kind of delivery that is bowled or flipped from the front of the hand so as to make the spin of the ball square on to the pitch. On a hard pitch the ball will skid and confuse the batsman. Not a dolphin.

    November 30, 2007