• Flop

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -É’p

    Origin 1

    Recorded since 1602, probably a variant of flap with a duller, heavier sound

    Full definition of flop

    Verb

    1. To fall heavily, because lacking energy.He flopped down in front of the television as he was exhausted from work.
    2. To fail completely, not to be successful at all (about a movie, play, book, song etc.).The latest album flopped and so the studio canceled her contract.
    3. (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.
    4. 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.

    Derived terms

    terms derived from flop (verb)

    Noun

    flop

    (plural flops)
    1. An incident of a certain type of fall; a plopping down.
    2. A complete failure, especially in the entertainment industry.
    3. (poker) The first three cards turned face-up by the dealer in a Community card poker game.
      • 1996: John Patrick, John Patrick's Casino Poker: Professional Gambler's Guide to WinningThe flop didn't help you but probably did help the other hands.
      • 2003: Lou Krieger, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker GamesHere are six tips to help you play successfully on the flop (the first three communal cards).
      • 2005: Henry Stephenson, Real Poker Night: Taking Your Home Game to a New LevelThe strength of your hand now has nothing to do with how strong it may have been before the flop.
    4. A place to stay, sleep or live. See flophouse
      • 1973, Alan Watts, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal, Pantheon Books, page 135,They have opened up crypts and basements as immense pads where vagrant and impoverished hippies can flop for the night..
      • 1969, Howard E. Freeman, Norman R. Kurtz, America's Troubles: A Casebook on Social Conflict, Prentice-Hall, Page 414,... is not just the old material goal of "three hots and a place to flop," it ....
      • 2006, Ray Douglas, America Is Headed for a Fall, AuthorHouse, Page 53,Hugh and the boys playing in beautiful settings with beautiful young babes was a far cry from grungy hippies doing it in a filthy flop house, ...
    5. A ponded package of dung, as in a cow-flop.
      • 2000, Dean King, A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales, Henry Holt & Co., Page 162,... cowpat or cow-flop, Cow dung, often used dry as heating fuel.
      • 1960, Winston Graham, Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787, Bodley Head, Page 302,"Maybe as you think," he said, "because as I've the misfortune of an accidental slip on a cow-flop therefore I has the inability of an unborn babe, ...
      • 2003, John W. Billheimer, Drybone Hollow, St. Martin's Press, Page 215,"Cow flop in a neat package is still cow flop. What did Cable stand to gain from the flood?"

    Synonyms

    Adverb

    flop

    1. Right, squarely, flat-out.
    2. With a flopping sound.

    Related terms

    Origin 2

    Syllabic abbreviation of floating point + operation.

    Noun

    flop

    (plural flops)
    1. (computing) A unit of measure of processor speed, being one floating-point operation per second.

    Derived terms

    terms derived from ''flop (computing)
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