flop

1 of 4

verb

ˈfläp 

flopped; flopping

intransitive verb

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.

transitive verb

: to move or drop heavily or noisily : cause to flop

flopped the bundles down

flopper noun

flop

2 of 4

adverb

: right, squarely

fell flop on my face

flop

3 of 4

noun (1)

1

: an act or sound of flopping

2

: a complete failure

The movie was a flop.

3

slang : a place to sleep

especially : flophouse

4

: dung

cow flop

also : a piece of dung

flop

4 of 4

noun (2)

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 combination

gigaflop

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.

Synonyms of flop

Verb

• plop

Noun (1)

• disaster
• failure
• bust
• catastrophe
• disappointment

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 Web

Verb

If the Dodgers flop this October, the owners are not going to suddenly back off a salary cap. — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2026

While the warehouse project has flopped, records show that in the last few months ICE has quietly expanded its detention system in other ways. — Jasmine Garsd, NPR, 23 Sep. 2026

Noun

The infamous stage musical adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a telekinetic high schooler was a massive Broadway flop in 1988 but has been redeemed by steady community and college theater productions over the decades since. — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 3 Oct. 2026

Frustrated with the officiating following an apparent flop by Aces guard Mai Yamamoto amid heavy physical pressure, Clark picked up a technical foul late in the frame. — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Verb

alteration of flap entry 2

Noun (2)

floating-point operation

First Known Use

Verb

1602, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Adverb

circa 1726, in the meaning defined above

Noun (1)

1823, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

1976, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing flop

• belly flop
• flip-flop
• flop sweat

Rhymes for flop

• bop
• chop
• cop
• crop
• drop
• fop
• hop
• knop
• lop
• mop
• op
• plop

Kids Definition

flop

1 of 2 verb

ˈfläp 

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 noun

1

: an act or sound of flopping

2

: a complete failure : dud