Flypaper

//ˈflaɪˌpeɪpɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A strip of paper coated with a sticky, often poisonous, substance that catches and kills flies that land on it. countable, uncountable

    ""What did I tell you? The thing clings like a flypaper," Josella observed to me."

  2. 2
    paper that is poisoned or coated with a sticky substance to kill flies wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To cause something to become stuck with, or as if with, flypaper.

    "He gets flypapered by a task that should be turned over to a subordinate."

Synonyms

All synonyms
fly ribbonfly ribbonpaper

Example

More examples

""What did I tell you? The thing clings like a flypaper," Josella observed to me."

Etymology

From fly + paper.

Related phrases

flypaper stripflypaper theory

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.