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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
flipper
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A boy born with flippers, which never ceased twitching.
▪ A dolphin drew alongside, and by counter-opposing its flippers, barrel-rolled right in front of his mask.
▪ All eventually disappeared except the rorqual's flippers and teeth, for which the Marine Biological Laboratory had put in a request.
▪ He held his spear gun out in front of him with the safety off and used his flippers to keep facing the fish.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
flipper

flippers \flippers\ n. flipper [By analogy with flipper[W13(1)], the limb of an aquatic animal used for locomotion] A type of shoe with a paddle-like front extending well beyond the end of the toe, used an aid in swimming (especially underwater).

Note: They are typically of rubber-like material, and are not worn when walking on land.

Syn: fin, fins.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
flipper

limb used to swim with, 1822, agent noun from flip (v.). Sense of "rubber fin for underwater swimming" is from 1945. Slang meaning "the hand" dates from 1836. Related: Flippers.

Wiktionary
flipper

n. 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, used to keep the ball in play 4 (context cricket English) A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce 5 (context informal US English) television remote control, clicker 6 (context dated slang English) The hand. 7 (context dentistry English) A kind of false tooth, usually temporary. 8 A kitchen spatula vb. to lift one or both flipper out of the water and slap the surface of the water

WordNet
flipper
  1. n. a shoe for swimming; the paddle-like front is an aid in swimming (especially underwater) [syn: flippers, fin, fins]

  2. the flat broad limb of aquatic animals specialized for swimming

Wikipedia
Flipper (cricket)

The flipper is the name of a particular bowling delivery used in cricket, generally by a leg spin bowler. In essence it is a back spin ball. Squeezed out of the front of the hand with the thumb and first and second fingers, it keeps deceptively low after pitching and can accordingly be very difficult to play. The flipper is comparable to a riseball in fast-pitch softball.

By putting backspin on the ball the Magnus effect results in air travelling over the top of the ball quickly and cleanly whilst air travelling under the ball is turbulent. The lift produced means that the ball drops slower and travels further than a normal delivery. The slower descent also results in the ball bouncing lower.

The flipper is bowled on the opposite side to a slider, much in the same way that the top-spinner is bowled. On release, the bowler 'pinches' or clicks the thumb and forefinger, causing the ball to come out underneath the hand. There must be sufficient tension in the wrist and fingers to impart a good helping of backspin or underspin. In doing so the flipper will float on towards the batsman and land on a fuller length than he anticipated, often leaving him caught on the back foot when he wrongly assumes it to be a pullable or a cuttable ball. The back spin or underspin will cause the ball to hurry on at great pace with very little bounce, though this may be harder to achieve on softer wickets. A series of normal leg spinners or topspinners, with their dropping looping flight, will have the batsman used to the ball pitching on a shorter length. The batsman may wrongly assume that the flipper will drop and loop like a normal overspinning delivery, resulting in the ball pitching under the bat and going on to either hit the stumps or result in leg before wicket.

Much of the effectiveness of the flipper is attributable to the "pop", that is, the extra pace and change in trajectory that is imparted to the ball when it is squeezed out of the bowler's hand.

Occasionally, the term 'flipper' has been used to describe other types of deliveries. The Australian leg spinner Bob Holland employed a back spinning ball that he simply pushed backwards with the heel of his palm. Sometimes this form of front-hand flipper is called a "zooter". It is easier to bowl but not as effective as the amount of backspin is much less.

Flipper

Flipper may refer to:

Flipper (band)

Flipper is an American punk and noise rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge, punk rock and noise rock bands. Their slowed-down, bass-driven and heavily distorted style of punk is also considered a key forerunner to sludge, and influenced bands such as The Melvins and Nirvana, whose bass player Krist Novoselic played with the band in the 2000s.

Flipper (1996 film)

Flipper is a 1996 adventure film remake of the 1963 film of the same name, starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood. The movie is about a boy who has to spend the summer with his uncle, who lives on the Gold Coast. Although he expects to have another boring summer, he encounters a dolphin whom he names Flipper and with whom he forms a friendship.

Flipper (1964 TV series)

Flipper, from Ivan Tors Films in association with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, is an American television program first broadcast on NBC from September 19, 1964, until April 15, 1967. Flipper, a bottlenose dolphin, is the companion animal of Porter Ricks, Chief Warden at fictional Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve in southern Florida, and his two young sons, Sandy and Bud. The show has been dubbed an "aquatic Lassie", and a considerable amount of children's merchandise inspired by the show was produced during its first run.

Flipper (1995 TV series)

Flipper (also known as Flipper – The New Adventures) is an American revival television series of the original 1964 Flipper television series. The first two seasons aired in first-run syndication; seasons 3 and 4 aired on the PAX network.

Although the series was set in Bal Harbour, Florida, it was largely filmed in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. However three episodes during the first season, including the pilot, were filmed in Pigeon Key, Florida and at the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida.

Flipper (anatomy)

A flipper is a typically flat forelimb evolved for movement through water. Various creatures have evolved flippers, for example penguins (also called " wings"), cetaceans (e.g. dolphins and whales; usually called " fins"), pinnipeds, and reptiles such as some varieties of turtle and the now-extinct plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and metriorhynchids.

Some flippers are very efficient hydrofoils, analogous to wings ( airfoils), used to propel and maneuver through the water with great speed and maneuverability (see Foil (fluid mechanics)). Some flippers are less foiled, with the appendages still apparent, as in the webbed forefeet seen in amphibious turtles.

Flipper (1963 film)

Flipper is an American feature film released on August 14, 1963 written by Arthur Weiss based upon a story by Ricou Browning and Jack Cowden. Produced by Ivan Tors and directed by James B. Clark, it portrays a 12-year-old boy living with his parents in the Florida Keys, who befriends an injured wild dolphin. The lad and his pet become inseparable, eventually overcoming the misgivings of his fisherman father.

The film introduced the popular song Flipper, by Dunham and Henry Vars and inspired the subsequent television series of the same name (1964–1967) and film sequels.

The film received good reviews.

Flipper (mascot)

Flipper was a mascot for the Miami Dolphins from 1966 to 1968. He was situated in a fish tank in the open (east) end of the Orange Bowl, and would jump in the tank when a touchdown or field goal was scored. Flipper was removed from the stadium after 1968 to save costs.

Usage examples of "flipper".

Hence, none of the Ampersand group who arrived at the submarine school in the second week of January needed any introduction to flippers, masks, wet suits, dry suits, or underwater breathing apparatus.

She longed to bury her face and hands in their fur, feel their raspy tongues on her cheeks and fingersor flippers as the case might behear their thundering purrs or even their disdainful scolding.

As I approached the elasmosaurus this morning, I noticed a faint disturbance in the water near its flippers.

Flats, heels, high heels, platforms, pumps, toe shoes, slippers, clogs, sling backs, loafers, moccasins, wedgies, oxfords, saddle oxfords, sneakers, sandals, go-go boots, Beatles boots, Birkenstocks, mules, Wallabees, granny boots, thongs, flip-flops, Timberlands, desert boots, Docksiders, cycling shoes, track shoes, huaraches, scuba flippers, wing tips, riding boots, Top-siders, espadrilles, high tops, golf shoes, stilettos, bowling shoes, snowshoes, clown shoes, Capezios, spikes, orthopedics, bucks, wading boots, ballet slippers, harem slippers, Japanese geta, Mary Janes, Hush Puppies, hiking boots, sabots, tap shoes, and galoshes.

The forelimbs have been converted into flippers, and the end of the tail bent downwards as in ichthyosaurs, suggesting the presence of a fishlike fin.

A sinuous, limbless species, possessing fringed flippers, however, that are snakish in a way.

She could literally feel her bones and organs shifting and changing as the recombinant invader transformed her very identity Visions of glowing mice and limbless thalidomide children infected her imagination, but when she looked down at her hands, afraid that all she would see were flippers, she discovered instead that her fingers were stretching before her eyes, growing longer and preternaturally more supple.

I never understood how Mumu and Siseleka were able to swim right up to a great white shark and impudently touch flipper to fin.

Great sea mammal sounds began to issue from them both: a groaning against the heavy pressure of the ocean, a squirty opening of mollusk shells, a slapping of wet flippers, an exhalation of salty and humid vapors, a blubberous explosion of moby dick.

Grampus gave Triton a glimpse of fifty enormous teeth, and with a swirl of rounded flippers turned away his thirty-foot black bulk, tagged with white on underparts, above each eye and on each flank.

I heard a sharp knock on my diving helmet, turned on the heels of my flippers, and there was Takeo Yoshikawa, Director of Benthonic Research at Mitsubishi, grinning broadly, casually attired in pale-blue polo shirt, safari shorts, and espadrilles.

And so the ecologists smoked their toalache, and they saw visions of their life as it could be, and they bred their children to have pointed noses and flippers and fluked tails.

They were seallike creatures, from what we could see, with sleek wet bodies, three sets of flippers, with the front pair looking larger and very prehensile, fingerlike.

Great sea mammal sounds began to issue from them both: a groaning against the heavy pressure of the ocean, a squirty opening of mollusk shells, a slapping of wet flippers, an exhalation of salty and humid vapors, a blubberous explosion of moby dick.

One after the other, they reared up, nipped the edges of their beclawed front flippers, and let blood flow into the drogo leaf.