flip
pronunciation
How to pronounce flip in British English:
UK [flɪp]
How to pronounce flip in American English:
US [flɪp]
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- Noun:
- an acrobatic feat in which the feet roll over the head (either forward or backward) and return
- hot or cold alcoholic mixed drink containing a beaten egg
- the act of flipping a coin
- a dive in which the diver somersaults before entering the water
- (sports) the act of throwing the ball to another member of your team
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- Verb:
- lightly throw to see which side comes up
- cause to go on or to be engaged or set in operation
- look through a book or other written material
- toss with a sharp movement so as to cause to turn over in the air
- cause to move with a flick
- throw or toss with a light motion
- move with a flick or light motion
- turn upside down, or throw so as to reverse
- go mad, go crazy
- reverse (a direction, attitude, or course of action)
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- Adjective:
- marked by casual disrespect
Word Origin
- flip (v.)
- 1590s "to fillip, to toss with the thumb," imitative, or perhaps a thinned form of flap, or else a contraction of fillip (q.v.), which also is held to be imitative. Meaning "toss as though with the thumb" is from 1610s. Meaning "to flip a coin" (to decide something) is by 1879. Sense of "get excited" is first recorded 1950; flip (one's) lid "lose one's head, go wild" is from 1949, American English; variant flip (one's) wig attested by 1952, but the image turns up earlier in popular record reviews ["Talking Boogie. Not quite as wig-flipping as reverse side--but a wig-flipper" Billboard, Sept. 17, 1949]. Related: Flipped. Flipping (adj.) as euphemism for fucking is British slang first recorded 1911 in D.H. Lawrence. Flip side (of a gramophone record) is by 1949.
- flip (n.2)
- sailors' hot drink usually containing beer, brandy and sugar, 1690s, from flip (v.); so called from notion of it being "whipped up" or beaten.
- flip (adj.)
- "talkative and disrespectfully smart," see flippant.
- flip (n.1)
- 1690s, "a flick, a snap;" see flip (v.). In reference to an overturning of the body, probably short for flip-flap (see flip-flop) "somersault in which the performer throws himself over on hands and feet alternately," 1670s, originally a move in (male) dancing.
Example
- 1. What mead understood is that a psychological switch should flip as things head toward zero .
- 2. Grab a huge pile of magazines and simply flip through them .
- 3. You might want to flip through the pages to find an image .
- 4. Minsung kim 's back flip freaked out the guards in bryant park .
- 5. Unless your oven has major hot spots , you don 't have to flip the bacon or turn the pans .