lip flap

noun

A failure in audio-video synchronization, so that an actor's lips move but no sound is heard.

Meanings

nounlip flap (countable and uncountable, plural lip flaps)

plural lip flaps

  1. countableuncountablebroadcastingA failure in audio-video synchronization, so that an actor's lips move but no sound is heard.
  2. countableuncountablebroadcastingA movement of an actor's lips, which is to be matched as closely as possible in a dubbed version of the film.

    For the dubbed version, we would start with this translated script and then work to create a new script, which would closely match the lip flaps and intonations of the character onscreen

    2010, Josef Steiff, Tristan D. Tamplin, Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder
    2 more examples

    […] pick it up earlier or later where there is no lip-flap. But if you must take it there, then you must precede it with another shot of the same speaker at a different angle, hopefully closer.

    1972, Filmmakers Newsletter, volume 5, number 7, part 12, page 46

    “So when we translate,” Lam was saying, “it's all about what we call lip flaps. Like, how many times does mouth move? We match translation more to mouth than to what words really mean.

    2009, Shawn Klomparens, Two Years, No Rain, page 49
  3. countableuncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lip, flap.
Cite this entry
APA

lip flap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lip%20flap

MLA

“lip flap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lip%20flap. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lip flap,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lip%20flap.

Source: lip flap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.