Meanings
plural lip flaps
- countableuncountablebroadcastingA failure in audio-video synchronization, so that an actor's lips move but no sound is heard.
- 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 Wonder2 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
Cite this entry
lip flap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lip%20flap
“lip flap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lip%20flap. Accessed November 4, 2026.
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.