flyswatter

noun

fly·​swat·​ter ˈflī-ˌswä-tər 

: a device for killing insects that consists of a flat piece of perforated rubber or plastic or fine-mesh wire netting attached to a handle

Examples of flyswatter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Drive around the island and catch glimpses of past civilizations: ancient fig trees propped up by wooden crutches; centuries-old windmills that look like giant antique flyswatters; stone walls built by the Moors during the Middle Ages that somehow still look new. —Julia Chaplin, Travel + Leisure, 13 May 2025

Or just smash them with a flyswatter and clean up with a tissue. —Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 6 Dec. 2024

In one, a red apparition seems ready to smash people with a flyswatter. —Ian Johnson, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2024

Drop that flyswatter right now! —Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 3 Feb. 2023

ChatGPT, on the other hand, will converse about the concept of falsehoods in the Quran, write a prayer for a rabbi to deliver to Congress and compare God to a flyswatter. —Will Oremus, Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2023

This yellow flyswatter was decorated by hand with black puff paint. —courier-journal.com, 2 June 2021

On the site, a graphic appeared, showing an insect with a female face—a logo for DarkMarket—underneath a flyswatter. —Ed Caesar, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2021

People made jokes about Jeff Goldblum; other folks dug up images of Biden holding a flyswatter. —Angela Watercutter, Wired, 7 Oct. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1917, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for flyswatter

• backwater
• bathwater
• blackwater
• breakwater
• deepwater
• edgewater
• feedwater
• floodwater
• freshwater
• granddaughter
• groundwater
• headwater