Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a very young prostitute (usu. in her early teens).

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 372/1: Flippers, flappers, very young girls trained to vice, generally for the amusement of elderly men.
[1904		H.M. Watkins [perf. Mark Sheridan] ‘All the little ducks went quack, quack, quack’ 🎵 And all the little ducks went quack, quack, quack / When they heard of the treat in store / [...] / And all their little wings went flap, flap, flap / They said, ‘We’ve found a “jay”’].
1909		G.F. Bacchus Maudie 70: Her adopted niece, a little, and very typical French flapper. [...] Madame was educating her for the stage, equally for a life of smart prostitution [...] she wanted a big price for that precious virginity, but there was nothing the little darling didn’t know.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 23 Feb. 5/1: And her mother knows about it / Watches trouble awl the while; / Coppin’ of the Flapper’s earnin’s, / In a unpretentious style.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 104: I filled out a bit, and as it was the day of the well-rounded women, before the damn Irene Castle tea dancers and speakeasy flappers were in fashion, a little here and there on a girl was something a man liked.

2. (orig. US, also flapp) a flighty girl or young woman, usu. middle-class, in her late teens or very early 20s, who sported short, bobbed hair, lipstick and skimpy dresses and generally led a lifestyle as far as possible removed from that desired by her parents; thus flapper-seat, a seat at the back of a bicycle to accommodate a young woman; flapper vote, a contemptuous expression for the parliamentary vote, which was granted to women over 21 years in 1928 (the over-30s having been enfranchised in 1918).

1892		Eve. News 20 Aug. in Ware (1909) 133/1: A correspondent of Notes and Queries has been troubling his mind about the use of the slang word ‘flapper’ as applied to young girls. Another correspondent points out that a ‘flapper’ is a young wild duck which is unable to fly, hence a little duck of any description, human or otherwise. The answer seems at first sight frivolous enough, but it is probably the correct solution of this interesting problem all the same.
1905		Richmond River Exp. (NSW) 9 June 12/1: Flipper: Why does ho object to his wife going out alone In her motor? Flapper: Because he can’t see how one unmanagable thing can manage another.
1908		Sporting Times 11 July 1/4: M’yes, ‘hitch your waggon to a star’ is right enough in a way [...] but if the stars, as is generally the case, have made their own arrangements, what’s the matter with one of the dear little flappers in the chorus?
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Sept. 4/7: Yes, Julius, beloved of the ‘flapper,’ is with us again / Distinguished, romantic, yet dapper.
c.1912		Powell & Arthurs [perf. Marie Lloyd] Three Ages of Women 🎵 What is a woman’s opinion of man / When she’s first seventeen and a flapper? / She wears baby hats and her hair is in plaits / Still, she’s got big ideas in her napper.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Farewell and Adieu!’ in Naval Occasions 135: Little pigtailed girls with tight skirts enclosing immature figures, of a class known technically as the ‘Flapper,’ drifted by with lingering, precocious stares.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 11/4: [headline] Pirates On The Prowl. Flappers Ogle The Flighty Fairies.
1917		Day Book (Chicago) 10 Jan. 13/1: ‘Flapper’ will doubtless prove the most abused word of [...] 1917 names of feminine type. [...] The flapper originated in English society a dozen years ago. She is just becoming known ion the country.
1919		Mayo & David [perf. Marie Lloyd] I can’t forget the days when I was young 🎵 Of course you know I'm not the flapper now that I used to be.
1921		Sun. Mirror (Perth) 13 Feb. 6/3: Flapper (with bobbed hair) : If I let you kiss me on one cheek, which will you choose? Beau: I should choose between the two.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 258: He had often and weightily pondered flappers smoking in Zenith restaurants.
1929		N.Z. Truth 14 Nov. 6/3: Some of the flappers who work in condiment factories are apt to get saucy at times!
c.1930		[perf. Vesta Victoria] If that ain’t life, wot is? 🎵 Lor lumme, wen I finks abart the flappers up in tahn / Wot works in shops and orfices, and travels up and dahn.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 409: I never think of the damn flapps at all – only to dance.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘Doctor Goosegrease’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 17: I turn flappers’ pimples into beautiful dimples.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 90: The healthy, flapper-and-bobby-sox beauty of these appallingly typical American schoolgirls.
1952		J. Cleary Sundowners 13: Don’t let me ever catch you looking at any flappers. Or anything in skirts.
1961		T. Williams Night of the Iguana Act II: She isn’t a modern flapper.
1976		q. in T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare(2017) 9: The last cigarette commercial in Australia is aired in 1976. It’s an homage to women, ‘from flapper to female liberation’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 Sept. 5: That widely popular phenomenon of dance music and well-groomed flappers.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 152: Colleen Moore, the original flapper, who clipped her hair, shortened her dresses, and tossed her corset in the trash.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 604: She wanted [...] to be a fast flapper caressed by many men with glossy hair and two-tone shoes.

3. (Aus.) a young girl, prob. a teenager, who is not yet considered old enough to be part of adult society; also attrib.

1900		Adelaide Obs. (SA) 17 Nov. 40/1: Many girls who have been injudiciously allowed to go to small dances have been known to put off their ‘coming out’ as long as they possibly could, simply that they might make the most of their comparative liberty. Careful mothers recognise this, and very wisely discountenance these ‘flapper’ dances.
1901		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 3 Aug. 5/5: ‘Will you introduce me to those girls? That second one on the near side was simply perfection. The flapper didn't look half so bad, either.’ ‘May I ask which of them you call the “flapper”?’ I said severely [...] ‘Why, the little one, the half-fledged youngster,’ replied Saynor.
1910		Numurkah Leader (Vic.) 14 Jan. 3/2: Nowadays a girl of twenty is considered only just grown up, and [...] has only just got over the indignity of being called a ‘flapper’.
1900		Table Talk (Melbourne) 29 Mar. 17/3: If my scalp [...] hung at her girdle, it would, she being a mere ‘flapper,’ and not yet ‘out’, constitute a veritable triumph for her over the more seasoned, and possibly prettier, girls of the district.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 85: Those scrambles were the limit. They began with the nippers. Then the flappers joined in. Next the mothers, some with babies in their arms [...] Finally the men.

4. (Aus.) used of a young man; also attrib.

1900		Australasian 28 July 34/5: ‘I had a dance with a flapper youth,’ said the girl at the ball-room door, / ‘He gave me his “jolly football coves,” and ihe wonderful way they score; / [...] / And tore my dress with his clumsy way.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 7/2: The male flapper is very prominent in Sydney just now. The female flapper we have known, under different names, from time immemorial. But the male flapper is a modern marvel. [...] Some folks say that the haberdasher and tailor built him, and that the barber scented and perfumed him. As for perfume, the average male flapper [...] stinks as odorous as a patchouli-bespringled dame from questionable quarters.

5. attrib. use of sense 2.

1930

Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH) 26 May 9/3: Flipping or scathing retors [sic] in the modern flapper or sheik vernacular.