dewlap
/ˈdu.læp/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.63 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "1901 – 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame."
- "I need new clothes. Okay. How come? Because girls seem to like it when boys wear more than one type of shirt. Why is that? I guess so they can get a sense of your style. It says something about a person. Like how some iguanas flare their colorful dewlaps to attract a mate. Exactly... like that. I think."
- "He ended up looking at himself in the mirror. His image stared back at him. He was developing a dewlap - a definite dewlap. He waggled under his chin scornfully with his fingers."
Etymology
From Middle English dewlappe. The first element may be dew (and if not, seems to have been altered by folk etymology to resemble it); the second element is lap (“loose fabric”), Old English læppa (“a loose hanging piece”); compare jellop and jowlop (from jowl + lap), and dewclaw. Compare old Norwegian and Danish doglæp (the modern Danish word for "dew" is dug, but compare Old Norse dǫgg (“dew”) and Norwegian dogg). Old English instead terms such skin the frǣtlæppa (whence Middle English fresh-lappe).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: dewlappe, læppa
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdu.læp/
- British English: /ˈdjuː.læp/