flopped; flopping
1
: to swing or move loosely : flap
2
: to throw or move oneself in a heavy, clumsy, or relaxed manner
flopped into the chair
3
: to change or turn suddenly
4
: to go to bed
a place to flop at night
5
: to fail completely
the play flopped
: to move or drop heavily or noisily : cause to flop
flopped the bundles down
flopper
noun
plural flops
: a unit of measure for calculating the speed of a computer equal to one floating-point operation per second
Supplied by IBM, with a billion flops (floating point operations per second) and a capacity to expand to 60 billion flops with the addition of other processors and memory, it will be among the 10 most sophisticated computers in the world.—
Eleanor Wilson
—usually used in combinationEleanor Wilsongigaflop
A GPU [=graphics processing unit] can deliver hundreds of billions of operations per second—some GPUs more than a teraflop, or a trillion operations per second—while requiring only slightly more electrical power and cooling than a CPU.—Andrea Di Blas et al.
Andrea Di Blas et al.Synonyms
Examples of flop in a Sentence
Verb
He flopped down onto the bed.
She flopped into the chair with a sigh.
All of their attempts have flopped miserably.
The curtains were flopping around in the breeze.
Noun (1)
The movie was a total flop.
It fell to the ground with a flop.
Recent Examples on the WebJeannette Neumann, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024
Every athlete that Nike sponsors in the upcoming Olympics could lose; every shoe that the company launches in the next few months could flop.
—Adrienne So, WIRED, 17 Apr. 2024
Companies often feel compelled to make their own mark on the day despite infamous instances where April Fools' fakeries have flopped – or worse, backfired and created costly consequences.
—USA TODAY, 1 Apr. 2024
But the whole proposition flops if clock speeds can’t be raised by all that much.
—PCMAG, 10 Apr. 2024
Many of the films Disney produced last year flopped at the box office, driving less traffic to its lucrative theme parks, whose role in turn is to rejuvenate consumer interest in its underlying content like its Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and start the process afresh.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 3 Apr. 2024
Company Town Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor flopped on the stock market.
—Wendy Lee, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
Back inside the studio, Richardson flops onto the sofa in her dressing room after an intense block of filming, a mass of white curls still piled up on her head.
—K.j. Yossman, Variety, 29 Mar. 2024
Other Key Races Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, abruptly ended her bid for U.S. Senate, a campaign flop that reflected intense national frustration with politics as usual.
—Katie Rogers, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2024
Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 24 Apr. 2024
Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet.
—Adam Satariano, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
In the tradition of so many pregnant people before her, Sofia Richie Grainge has left the house in a pair of flip flops and an elasticated smock dress.
—Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 11 Apr. 2024
Throughout the series, Brown and a lineup of comedic guests (which have included stars like Guy Branum, Connor Ratliff) analyze and rank flops, exploring what happens when high expectations lead to disappointing outcomes.
—Eda Yu, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Apr. 2024
And so, while the movie technically turned a profit, it’s still considered one of the more spectacular flops of its era because of its inability to live up to the massive hype that preceded its release.
—Katie Rife, EW.com, 28 Mar. 2024
Dodgers and Angels square off to open the MLB season
Greatest team or biggest flop?
—Christian Orozco, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2024
It’s been a flop When Amazon debuted cashier-less technology, it was hailed as the future of retail.
—Bryan Mena, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
There’s no hack for growing trees Grant Canary’s first idea for how to fix reforestation was a flop.
—Lydia Depillis, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
Verb
Nordstrom previously tried to go private but those talks ultimately flopped in 2017.
—Jeannette Neumann, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024
Every athlete that Nike sponsors in the upcoming Olympics could lose; every shoe that the company launches in the next few months could flop.
—Adrienne So, WIRED, 17 Apr. 2024
Companies often feel compelled to make their own mark on the day despite infamous instances where April Fools' fakeries have flopped – or worse, backfired and created costly consequences.
—USA TODAY, 1 Apr. 2024
But the whole proposition flops if clock speeds can’t be raised by all that much.
—PCMAG, 10 Apr. 2024
Many of the films Disney produced last year flopped at the box office, driving less traffic to its lucrative theme parks, whose role in turn is to rejuvenate consumer interest in its underlying content like its Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and start the process afresh.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 3 Apr. 2024
Company Town Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor flopped on the stock market.
—Wendy Lee, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024
Back inside the studio, Richardson flops onto the sofa in her dressing room after an intense block of filming, a mass of white curls still piled up on her head.
—K.j. Yossman, Variety, 29 Mar. 2024
Other Key Races Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, abruptly ended her bid for U.S. Senate, a campaign flop that reflected intense national frustration with politics as usual.
—Katie Rogers, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2024
Noun
Ten years ago, a patient hunter could sometimes snatch up a 1530 for hundreds of dollars, but—as with the King Midas before it—the 1530 is in vogue, and its flop at retail means not that many are out there.
—Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 24 Apr. 2024
Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet.
—Adam Satariano, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
In the tradition of so many pregnant people before her, Sofia Richie Grainge has left the house in a pair of flip flops and an elasticated smock dress.
—Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 11 Apr. 2024
Throughout the series, Brown and a lineup of comedic guests (which have included stars like Guy Branum, Connor Ratliff) analyze and rank flops, exploring what happens when high expectations lead to disappointing outcomes.
—Eda Yu, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Apr. 2024
And so, while the movie technically turned a profit, it’s still considered one of the more spectacular flops of its era because of its inability to live up to the massive hype that preceded its release.
—Katie Rife, EW.com, 28 Mar. 2024
Dodgers and Angels square off to open the MLB season
Greatest team or biggest flop?
—Christian Orozco, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2024
It’s been a flop When Amazon debuted cashier-less technology, it was hailed as the future of retail.
—Bryan Mena, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
There’s no hack for growing trees Grant Canary’s first idea for how to fix reforestation was a flop.
—Lydia Depillis, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flop.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near flop
Cite this Entry
“Flop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flop. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
flop
1 of 2 verb
flopped; flopping
1
: to swing or bounce loosely : flap about
a hat brim flopping
2
a
: to throw oneself down in a heavy, clumsy, or relaxed manner
flopped into the chair
b
: to throw or drop suddenly and heavily or noisily
flopped the bundles down with a thud
3
: to fail completely
the play flopped
flop
2 of 2 noun1
: an act or sound of flopping
2
: a complete failure : dud
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