flop
intjEtymology Recorded since 1602, probably a variant of flap with a duller, heavier sound.
1
Indicating the sound of something flopping.
- "One step. Steady. Another step. Flop! I got him!"1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page xx. 154:
flop
verbalso spelled FLOPUK /flɒp/ · US /flɑp/
Etymology Recorded since 1602, probably a variant of flap with a duller, heavier sound.
9 senses
- 1To fall heavily due to lack of energy.
- 2To cause to drop heavily.
- 3To fail completely; not to be successful at all (of a…
- 4To pretend to be fouled in sports, such as basketball…
- 5To strike about with something broad and flat, as a fish…
- 6To have (a hand) using the community cards dealt on the flop.
- 7To stay, sleep or live in a place.
- 8To flip; to reverse (an image).
- 9To deny someone parole.
1
To fall heavily due to lack of energy.
- He flopped down in front of the television, exhausted from work.
- There was [in the clock in Lyons Cathedral] a centre puppet of the Virgin Mary; and close to her, a small pigeon-hole, out of which another and a very ill-looking puppet made one of the most sudden plunges I ever saw accomplished: instantly flopping back again at sight of her, and banging his little door violently, after him.1846, Charles Dickens, “Lyons, the Rhone, and the Goblin of Avignon”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 19:
2
To cause to drop heavily.
- The tired mule flopped its ears forward and trudged on.
3
Informal To fail completely; not to be successful at all (of a movie, play, book, song etc.).
- The latest album flopped and so the studio canceled her contract.
4
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports To pretend to be fouled in sports, such as basketball, hockey (the same as to dive in soccer)
- It starts with Chris Paul, because Blake didn't really used to flop like that, you know, last year.
- While Stern chastised Vogel for on Thursday calling the Heat "the biggest flopping team in the NBA," he did intimate that he sees merit in the sentiment.
5
To strike about with something broad and flat, as a fish with its tail, or a bird with its wings; to rise and fall; to flap.
- The brim of a hat flops.
6
Card games, Poker To have (a hand) using the community cards dealt on the flop.
- Both players flopped sets! Cards dealt on the flop: Q95. Player A's hole cards: 55 (making three of a kind: 555). Player B's hole cards: QQ (making three of a kind: QQQ).
7
Slang To stay, sleep or live in a place.
- […] not just the old material goal of "three hots and a place to flop," […]1969, Howard E. Freeman, Norman R. Kurtz, America's Troubles: A Casebook on Social Conflict, Prentice-Hall, page 414:
- They have opened up crypts and basements as immense pads where vagrant and impoverished hippies can flop for the night.1973, Alan Watts, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal, Pantheon Books, page 135:
8
To flip; to reverse (an image).
- The possibilities of this type of shot are almost limitless. By quartering the screen and duplicating and flopping the picture, a kaleidoscopic effect is achieved.1968, Advertising Techniques, volumes 4-5, page 28:
- […] in order to flop the image left-to-right, or all printing will appear reversed.1986, Functional Photography, volumes 21-23, page 58:
9
Slang To deny someone parole.
- I've been incarcerated going on 9½ years. I have never been back on the streets or given a chance to prove myself to society. Every time I would meet the parole board they would flop me telling me I would be a threat to society.1986 April 12, anonymous author, “One Day I'll Write a Book on This”, in Gay Community News, page 4:
- Derived terms
- bellyflop, flop down, flop for, flophouse, flopover, flopper, floppingly, floppy, floptastic, fly and flop, mop-and-flop, that's the way the mop flops