Dictionary

flypaper en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈflaɪˌpeɪpɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From fly + paper.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A strip of paper coated with a sticky, often poisonous, substance that catches and kills flies that land on it.
   • "What did I tell you? The thing clings like a flypaper," Josella observed to me. 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 105:

Forms

Deriveds

flypaper theory · flypaper strip

Synonyms

fly ribbon

Translations (24)

hu légypapír (flypaper) · fr papier colle-mouches (flypaper) · ja 蝿取り紙 (flypaper) · sk mucholapka (flypaper) · fr papier à mouches (flypaper) · de Fliegenpapier (flypaper) · fr papier tue-mouches (flypaper) · de Fliegenfänger (flypaper) · fr attrape-mouche (flypaper) · de Honigstreifen (flypaper) · pl lep na muchy (flypaper) · fi kärpäspaperi (flypaper) · et kärbselint (flypaper) · it acchiappamosche (flypaper) · cmn 捕蠅紙 /捕蝇纸 (flypaper) · pl lep (flypaper) · et kärbsepaber (flypaper) · ru липу́чка для мух (flypaper) · bg мухоловка (flypaper) · nv naaltsoos dijéʼígíí (flypaper) · nl vliegenstrip (flypaper) · sv flugpapper (flypaper) · es papel matamoscas (flypaper) · cs mucholapka (flypaper)

flypaper en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈflaɪˌpeɪpɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From fly + paper.

Meanings

1. To cause something to become stuck with, or as if with, flypaper.
   • Cover painting that flypapered the eyes were very important to G-8 sales, and Frederick Blakeslee's mixing of fantasy with the realistic texture of machines had a hypnotic effect on impressionable coin-holders. 1970, Cross & Cockade Journal - Volume 11, page 373:
   • In 'The Vertical Ladder," a hapless adolescent is flypapered fast in perpetuity, a mean little speck, on the mast of implacability. 1996, Gilbert Alter-Gilbert, Life and Limb: Selected Tales of Peril, Predicament, and Dire Distress, page 20:
   • He gets flypapered by a task that should be turned over to a subordinate. 1967, Auren Uris, Keeping young in business, page 134:
   • Hysterical parties on her dorm floor concussed the hallways with music and produced a semi-permanent layer of trodden chips flypapered onto the carpet by spilled beer. 2010, The Malahat Review - Issues 170-173, page 20:

Forms