flap-doodle

English

Noun

flap-doodle (countable and uncountable, plural flap-doodles)

1. Alternative form of flapdoodle
   • 1894, John Murdoch, The Theosophic Craze:

     On inquiry what the little brass seal was, the prophetess said, " Oh, it's only a flap-doodle of Olcott's."

   • 1907, American Thresherman - Volume 10, page 46:

     He had buttonhole bouquets and all the flap-doodles that belong to a swell feed, and had his colored man grinding out music with a phonograph until the talkin' time came.

   • 1913, Augustus Samuel Harris, The Codling Math Manual, page 39:

     He still feeds fools on flap-doodle, and many of them have large and flourishing families, who will perpetuate the breed to the remotest generation.

   • 1983, John Masefield, Audrey Napier-Smith, William Buchan, Letters to Reyna, page 78:

     Being a dramatic critic taught him all the stock situations, and all the sentimental flap-doodle of the theatre of 1870- 1900 roused every intellectual needle in him to action.

   • 2013, Eve Golden, John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars, page 149:

     It is all impossible flap-doodle.

   • 2019, Opie Percival Read, A Yankee from the West:

     She's got lots of sense, horse sense and flap-doodle sense all mixed up. She's got more flap-doodle sense than I have; she reads books, and not long ago she give me a piece of poetry that she'd cut out of a newspaper.

2. Alternative form of flap doodle
   • 1912, Field & Stream - Volume 17, page 899:

     I fixed up a few feathers and flap-doodles and made the cutest and most stylish looking bug you ever saw.

   • 2012, John Gierach, No Shortage of Good Days, page 134:

     On a trip to Alaska a few years ago, I discovered flap-doodles. These are small orange or hot-pink spinner blades attached to a fly at the bend of the hook with a small barrel swivel.

Verb

flap-doodle (third-person singular simple present flap-doodles, present participle flap-doodling, simple past and past participle flap-doodled)

1. Alternative form of flapdoodle
   • 1918, Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates: Senate and House of Representatives, page 8275:

     I suppose that men with stars on their breasts, men who have won the Military Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, and other distinctions have to “flap-doodle” to a man like that, and I hope the Govemment will take action in regard to the statements of this fictitious General, because, after all he is not a General in the true sense of the word, and bring him to book.

   • 1932, James Murray, Coloured, page 219:

     They're not in business for their health, to be flap-doodled by phony paps or padded sterns

   • 1953, Baroness Mary Irene Curzon Ravensdale, In Many Rhythms: An Autobiography, page 142:

     He was told he was flap-doodling by my brother-in-law.