Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (US) to ‘come out’ as a homosexual.

1963

1963

J. Rechy City of Night 109: Before I flipped [...] I was very Innocent.

(b) (US gay) to reverse one’s primary sexual activity, i.e. for a masculine lesbian to turn ‘femme’ or a sadist to play masochist; thus flippy adj., describing a homosexual who will take the active or passive role in intercourse.

1972

19801990

1998

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 32: bisexual [...] flippy (also used of a homosexual who is able to fuck or be fucked).
1998		R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 flipping — to cause a stone butch to ‘melt’ or allow herself to be touched sexually, or to cause a top to bottom.

(c) (US) to convert a heterosexual to homosexuality.

1994

19952000

2004

1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 195: That guy was even more of a man if he could ‘flip’ another man, turn him into a homosexual.
2004		N. Kelley ‘The Code’ in Brooklyn Noir 185: These young ghetto bucks were obsessed with homosexuals [...] She could always tell which ones could be flipped.

(a) (US Und., also flip on) to inform (against); thus flipping, informing.

1960

196019701980199020002010

2020

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 9: I won’t flip on you. I’ll never flip on nobody again.
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 264: The snitch goes up to a guard and he drops a dime, flips or turns over on a fellow inmate.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 127: He hasn’t flipped in the past because he wasn’t looking at enough time. This flipping thing works because of the network these guys establish.
2003		G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 208: ‘He’s the big Magilla in his corner of the world.’ ‘So nobody’s gonna flip on his brother.’.
2006		Burns & Zorzi ‘Unto Others’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 7 [TV script] Even if he flips on me, I ain’t gonna do shit to the man.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] You tryin’ to say my man might be flippin’?
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] [H]e’d never flip on the Armenians.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘But, if you want, I pop you and then I put it out on the street you flipped. Not good’ [Ibid.] Then he went with Diego Tapia. Flipped on him when it was a matter of saving his own skin.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 83: Has he flipped on me?

(b) lit. or fig., to make someone into an informer.

1985

1990200020102020

2024

1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 217: If there was ever a time to flip him against his old crew it was at that moment.
1996		(con. 1970s) J. Lardner Crusader 236: McCarthy had his detectives making buys for $25,000 and more, and then flipping the people they arrested in order to go after still-bigger operators.
2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 127: We’d like to flip Larry Berra [...] but we’ll take whomever we can get.
2004		Mad mag. Nov. 25: You get busted for skipping detention, and the next thing you know, an FBI agent is trying to ‘flip’ you.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 96: You about to flip those investment bankers anyhow, the ones you nailed in that little sting.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 168: ‘Flipped?’ ‘Sorry [...] I’m talking a different language here. Flipped means they made a deal [...] Turned rat’.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘Try to flip him? Get him to wear a wire?’.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 49: ‘I’ll find out who the shooter was while you try and flip your grandson’.

(c) to tell a story.

1998

1998

Source Oct. 88: You’re flippin’ stories in almost every track on your album.

(d) to turn state’s evidence.

2000

2000

G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 152: He’s the one that made Bernie flip and Bernie gave him me.

(e) to change sides, e.g. from the police to the underworld.

2011

2011

L. Fritz In Nine Kinds of Pain [ebook] Frady knows that since his situation changed, since he flipped from good guy to bad, he’s been getting more respect in his building, especially from the brothers.