flop
pronunciation
How to pronounce flop in British English:
UK [flɒp]
How to pronounce flop in American English:
US [flɑp]
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- Noun:
- an arithmetic operation performed on floating-point numbers
- someone who is unsuccessful
- a complete failure
- the act of throwing yourself down
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- Verb:
- fall loosely
- fall suddenly and abruptly
- fail utterly; collapse
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- Adverb:
- with a flopping sound
- exactly
Word Origin
- flop (v.)
- c. 1600, "to flap," probably a variant of flap with a duller, heavier sound. Sense of "fall or drop heavily" is 1836; that of "collapse, fail" is 1919; though the figurative noun sense of "a failure" is recorded from 1893. Related: Flopped; flopping.
- flop (n.)
- 1823, "act of flopping; any action that produces the sound 'flop;' the sound itself," from flop (v.). Figurative sense of "a failure; that which is a failure" is by 1893, from the notion of a sudden break-down or collapse. Extended form flopperoo attested from 1936. The Fosbury flop high-jumping technique (1968) is so called in reference to U.S. athlete Dick Fosbury (b.1947), who used it to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal.
Example
- 1. The overhaul of the american retail bank may flop .
- 2. It would be a commercial flop .
- 3. It was a resounding flop .
- 4. An american television service in arabic has been a flop .
- 5. But then came copenhagen in 2009 , which was a flop .