[f. FLIP v. + -ER1.] 1. A limb used to swim with; e.g., any limb in a turtle; in a seal or walrus, esp. the fore-limb; the fore-limb of a cetacean; the wing of a penguin; the fin of a fish.
1822. G. W. Manby, Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821 (1823), 60. The fore paws or flippers [of the seal] consist of five fingers, joined together by a membrance, and ending in sharp and strong claws.
1868. Nat. Encycl., I. 955. Their [penguins’] wings are true flippers.
1885. J. G. Wood, The Whale, in Longm. Mag., V. 408. They [the fore limbs of the whale] are technically named ‘flippers.’
2. transf. The hand.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xlii. I like to touch the flipper of one who has helped to shame the enemy.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., St. Gengulphus, xx.
| Thus, limb from limb, they dismember’d him | |
| So entirely, that e’en when they came to his wrists, | |
| With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off his ‘flippers,’ | |
| As the Clerk, very flippantly, term’d his fists. |
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. The boatswain’s mate exalted in having ‘taken a lord by the flipper.’
3. Theat. ‘Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes’ (Farmer).
4. U.S. = FLAPJACK (Cent. Dict.).
5. Comb., as flipper-like adj.
1889. P. H. Emerson, Eng. Idylls, 133. Holding their shaking sides with their brawny flipper-like hands.
