flophouse

noun

flop·​house ˈfläp-ˌhau̇s How to pronounce flophouse (audio)
: a cheap rooming house or hotel

Examples of flophouse in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web If the land trust homes were going to be long-term investments rather than flophouses, the residents were going to need more than Cunningham’s handyman skills. Wes Enzinna, Harper's Magazine, 5 Jan. 2023 One success Possert cites is the Palace Hotel in Medford, a former single-room occupancy hotel (once known as flophouses) in southern Oregon. oregonlive, 24 Apr. 2023 The flophouse cots were stained and rusted. Justin Beal, Harper’s Magazine , 12 Dec. 2022 Twenty years after the Royalton, the Ace Hotel turned a seedy flophouse on 29th Street into a 24-hour living room with leather couches and a DJ spinning late into the night, luring the creative set north of 14th Street to a formerly unremarkable stretch around Madison Square Park. Tony Perrottet, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Dec. 2022 But the pad isn’t a flophouse for stoners. John Carlisle, Freep.com, 18 Aug. 2022 At the time of the shooting, the boy lived in what Busch described as a flophouse. Christina Maxouris, CNN, 16 Jan. 2023 After serving over the years as a movie palace, a performing-arts venue and even a flophouse for sailors, the Balboa closed without ceremony in early April 1986, acquired by the city through eminent domain. San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Jan. 2023 This wasn’t some flophouse that rented rooms by the hour. David Sedaris, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flophouse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of flophouse was in 1916

Dictionary Entries Near flophouse

Cite this Entry

“Flophouse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flophouse. Accessed 3 Oct. 2023.

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