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unflappable

UK/ʌnˈflæpəbəl/US/ʌnˈflæpəbəl/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,597 of 15,258neutral

Unflappable means so impossible to fluster that no emergency ever ruffles you. Utterly unflappable, an unflappable manner, unflappable under pressure.

It is high praise in any job where things go wrong, since an unflappable person keeps everybody else calm as well. The flap in it is the old slang for a panic, from birds beating their wings.

Definitions of unflappable

  1. 1adjectiveunflappableSo impossible to fluster that no emergency ever ruffles you.C1

    “The unflappable pilot calmly landed the plane with only one engine working.”

unflappable is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    flap

  2. English

    flap

  3. English, today

    unflappable

Built from

  • flappe · Middle English — a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap

From un- + flap + -able. flap comes from Middle English flap, flappe (“a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap”), related to stq Flappert (“wing, flipper”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a blow; slap on the face; fly-flap; flap”) (modern Dutch flap (“flap”)), Middle Low German flabbe, vlabbe, flebbe, from the verb (see below). Related also to English flab and flabby.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

unflappable in the wild

  • Steve Landesberg was an American actor and comedian known for his role as the erudite, unflappable police detective Arthur P.

    Steve Landesberg

  • Alan Truscott described him as "a cheerful extrovert" and "normally unflappable at the table".

    Giorgio Belladonna

  • A Canadian Press release published on May 13, 1966, credited him for keeping the peace and being unflappable.

    1966 Memorial Cup

  • Alistair Horne describes him as "cherubic, and unflappable, but with a piercing intellect" and "the Foreign Office expect on the Soviets, and Russian behaviour".

    Thomas Brimelow, Baron Brimelow

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the flappe family

flap

unflappable — used about once every 23,598 pages · #13,597 · point at the bar for the others