2. (popular). A step-dance; a cellar-flap (q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately. 1727. Gay, Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round. With sommersets he shakes the ground. 1872. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to a flip-flap. 1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults, flip-flaps, and contorted themselves. 3. (American). A kind of tea-cake. 1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts and flip-flaps. 4. (nautical). The arm. For synonyms, see Bender. 5. (venery). The penis. 1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I., 20. I might have cleft her water-gap And joined it close with my flip-flap. Flipper, subs. (nautical and common). 1. The hand. Tip us your flipper = give me your hand. [From the flipper or paddle of a turtle.] For synonyms, see Daddle and Mauley. 1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ With those great sugar-nippers they nipp’d off his flippers, As the clerk, very flippantly, termed his fists. 1884. Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Old Bluebottle tipped me his flipper, and ’oped I’d ‘refreshed,’ and all that. 2. (common). See Flapper. 3. (theatrical). Part of a scene, hinged and painted on both sides, used in trick changes. Flirtatious, adj. (American).—Flighty. 1881, W. D. Howells, D. Breen’s Practice, ch. i., “Oh, you needn’t look after her, Mr. Libby! There’s nothing flirtatious about Grace,” said Mrs. Maynard. Flirt-gill, Flirtgillian, or Gill-flirt, subs. (old). A wanton; a chopping girl (q.v.); specifically a strumpet. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart. 1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills. 1713. Guardian, No. 26. We are invested with a parcel of flirt-gills, who are not capable of being mothers of brave men. 1729. Gay, Polly, ii. 4. While a man is grappling with these gill-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason aground. 1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. v. She is a dutiful girl to her god-father, though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt. Flirtina Cop-all, subs. phr. (common). A wanton, young or old; a men’s woman (q.v.). Float, subs. (theatrical).—The footlights: before the invention of gas they were oil-pans with floating wicks. Cf., Ark-floater. 1886. Saturday Review, 24 July, p. 108. To an actor the float is not what it is to a fisherman. 1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 24. He slapped me on the back, put me in a hansom, and cried, ‘We’ll have you behind the float (footlights) in a week.’