flop

1 of 4

verb

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.

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
Others flopped, like THQ Nordic’s Alone in the Dark (2024), which attempted to completely overhaul an outdated 1992 game, but failed to deliver the level of terror of its modern peers. George Yang, Rolling Stone, 4 Oct. 2024 The Broadway production of Face Value closed in previews, joining the notorious ranks of all-time worst Broadway flops. Greg Evans, Deadline, 1 Oct. 2024 For example, the 2023 flop The Marvels premiered in theaters in November 2023 and was available on Disney+ in under three months. Monica Mercuri, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024 And while the 1950 Nash Rambler and 1953 Nash Metropolitan proved popular, other attempts, like the 1951 Kaiser Henry J and the 1953 Hudson Jet, flopped disastrously. Larry Printz, Ars Technica, 26 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for flop 

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.

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

1728, in the meaning defined above

Noun (1)

1823, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

1976, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of flop was in 1602

Dictionary Entries Near flop

Cite this Entry

“Flop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flop. Accessed 13 Oct. 2024.

Kids 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 noun
1
: an act or sound of flopping
2
: a complete failure : dud

More from Merriam-Webster on flop

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