flip out

verb

flipped out; flipping out; flips out

intransitive verb

informal

: to lose one's reason or composure

She's going to flip out when she sees the great present I got her!

"We were flipping out [from worry] and crying," Yvonne White said. "It was just getting worse and worse."

—Sydney Page

especially : to become very angry

… he flipped out on the server when they messed up his wife's order.

—Ajani Bazile

transitive verb

informal

: to cause (someone) to lose reason or composure

But it wasn't until he saw a homemade e-bike in the back of a neighbor's pickup truck about five years ago that he truly fell in love. "It flipped me out. It looked like a tiny motorcycle," [Andrew] Willner said.

—Lissa Harris

I fell asleep with my makeup on, and when I woke up, my eyes were swollen shut from an allergic reaction to the silver paint. I couldn't see a thing, and it flipped me out.

—Ace Frehley, quoted in Westport (Connecticut) News

Examples of flip out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Danish people, frankly, are flipping out that their longest ally, America, is now threatening to invade part of their territory. —CBS News, 18 Jan. 2026

Her long lob was flipped out on the ends and styled straight. —Tessa Petak, InStyle, 5 Jan. 2026

The fashion designers Justin Saul and Doni Nahmias are up ahead with Smith’s son Zion, who warns me that his dad might flip out on the course and start throwing clubs. —Sam Kestenbaum, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2026

Other New Yorkers just … flipped out. —Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 8 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1959, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Rhymes for flip out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout