Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) to cheat in an examination, esp. by faking sickness.

1856

B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 204: flop. [...] A man writes cards during examinations to ‘feeze the profs’; said cards are ‘gumming cards’, and he flops the examination if he gets a good mark by the means. One usually flops his marks by feigning sickness.

2. to hit.

1844		J.C. Neal Peter Ploddy and Other Oddities 159: She ‘flopped’ her little husband [...] with a shovel applied in its latitude, ‘broadside on’.
1907		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 4 May 7/5: Schoolboy Slang [...] Nor has tho school any admiration for the boy who is ‘copped and flopped for cogging’ (caught and flogged for cheatingg).
1908		Sporting Times 13 June 1/5: He shot out a straight right an’ flops it on the governor’s smeller, an’ I give you my word his boko bled for over ten minutes.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: flop. To hit or strike. ‘To flop him one.’.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 80: ‘Somebody musta flopped him a good one’ .

3. (US) to knock down an opponent; also in fig. use.

1887		in G.D. Atkin House Scraps 173: Last week a tip they set afloat, / That over fifteen topped ’em, / But Rothschild’s welcome little note / Soon back to fourteen flopped ’em.
1911		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 37: (Sailor Burke Has Made Good) Didn’t the sailor flop him on two separate occasions?
1933		C. Drew ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/3: ‘Gorilla would flop him in half a round. It wouldn’t be a match’.

4. to fall asleep, to go to bed.

1907		J. London Road 74: I had a ‘hunch’ that Niagara Falls was a ‘bad’ town for hoboes, and I headed out into the country. I climbed a fence and ‘flopped’ in a field.
1917		Van Loan ‘By a Hair’ in Old Man Curry 78: I [...] wish yo’ hadn’t invited him to do his floppin’ in yo’ tack-room.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 42: Ought to be up early huntin’ for scoffin’s, ’stead of floppin’ like he never slept for a week.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Dealer Gets It All’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 149: Yes, I’ve alkeed up in jungles, and I’ve flopped in new mown hay.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 209: I wouldn’t have minded flopping in the park with the weather so good.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 121: Living from hand to mouth, wherever there’s a crummy bed or a floor to flop on.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 81: I was just looking for you, and you weren’t flopped.
1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 91: We got no place to flop tonight. Could you give us a floor?
1989		M. Amis London Fields 79: Keith’s house is not a home. [...] It’s somewhere for the wife and child, and somewhere to flop, until Keith comes good.
1992		B. Gifford Night People 66: [That] was all Duke Douglas cared about, a place to flop.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 73: I just want to flop by now.
2002		R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 72: After flopping with his friends, Muddy sought out his relatives.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 253: [A]n arrangement that looked right, looked natural, like a guy flopping off a bender.

5. to lodge, i.e. in a hotel.

1905		Sporting Times 27 May 1/4: A certain Corinthian who contemplated crossing the Channel on the morrow to flop it down on Muskerry.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 78: It was the east side of the street only which held the ‘cafes’, the dime flopping dumps, the nickel restaurants and barber shops and the ‘missions’ patronized by the uncouth hoboes.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 208: I would have taken it [i.e. a room], just to be sure of a place to flop.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 173: We rushed into a phone booth and called the Cumberland Hotel [...] where we knew the whole gang was flopping.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 86: Here was his brother with no right arm [...] and probably no place to flop.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 24: The kid’s looking for maybe a pad to flop in and breakfast.
1975		L. Dills CB Slanguage 40: Flop Stop: place to sleep.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 37: He would’ve been happy enough to flop in someone’s granny flat or spare room.

6. (US) to sit down.

1913

‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 24 July 4/4: He wants you to flop and take a load off your feet.

7. (US prison) to inform.

1915

D. Lowrie My Life out of Prison 228: I was told you’d flopped to the cops.

8. (US Und.) to short-change.

1914

Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 35: flop [...] used by money changers to signify fraud by confusion. Example: ‘There’s a muff in that candy store that can be flopped because she can’t count change.’.

9. to move, to walk; often ext. as flop around, flop in etc.

1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Oct. 47/2: ‘Oh, flop right in then!’ he said brightly, throwing open the door and ushering me into the presence of Du Callion, who sat at a table wearing a Calvinistic expression.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew Pt 11 🌐 I bet you the drinks, Smoke, if you an’ me flop around the corner quick [...] an’ then turn back from around the next corner, that we run into him a-hikin’ hell-bent.

10. constr. with for, to favour, to ‘fall for’, to become enamoured of someone.

1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 370: He flopped fairly hard for Sylvia.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Nightmare Town’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 35: Then the telegraph company sent Nova here and I flopped for her.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 187: It cost many a good guy’s life when he flopped for your red hair.
1966		M. Braly It’s Cold Out There (2005) 193: They were rich [...] and beautiful broads flopped for them.

11. (also go flop) to collapse, to fail, esp. of a stage entertainment or similar undertaking.

1914		E. Pound letter 28 Mar. in Paige (1971) 34: If I could be sure of even three or four good stiff numbers I might make some sort of stand for a restart here, or even an English ‘publication’ of Poetry, but the thing flopped so before that there has been no use ‘talking it up’.
1916		T.W.H. Crosland ‘Excuses’ War Poems 70: I’m indispensable, I am, I am, / And if I went the business would go flop.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 47: She’ll give—everything—and if any angle flops, it won’t be because she’ll dog it.
1934		‘Hinky-Dinky’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 559: She might have been young for all we knew, / When Napoleon flopped at Waterloo.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 31: The boys accepted so few of his suggestions that he hated to have this one flop.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 113: He’s always investing money in shows on Broadway. They always flop though.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 194: I made thirteen attempts at suicide in the last couple of years. I flopped each time. [...] I had to flop [...] I have never yet succeeded at any big thing I wanted to do.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 1: I was trying to sell forestry bonds, but that’s gone flop. I couldn’t earn enough to pay the rent so I packed up.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 122: Richard was given the disappointing news that ‘Bama Lama’ had flopped.
1998		Source Oct. 200: The last albums by Grandmaster Flash [...] and Whodini flopped.
2000		Indep. Mag. 22 Jan. 12: Hurricane No. 1’s last album flopped.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] First album was a big hit, but his second one flopped.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 21: [of a parole application] Frenzy had flopped seven times to her four.

12. to murder.

1926

C.J. Daly ‘Lurking Shadows’ Triple-X Mag. May 🌐 The Rat was flopped with a bullet through the back of his head.

13. to lose a fight deliberately, to ‘take a dive’.

1919		A. Baer Two and Three 5 Feb. [synd. col.] Flopper Fulton inherited a yard of thousand-dollar bills for tossing off one of Annette’s [i.e. swimming star A. Kellerman] standing-sitting-standing dives.
1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 47: Ike Bush flopping. I know for a fact that ain’t so.

14. (US) to fall or throw oneself to the ground for protection.

1918		S.S. Clark letter 17 Sept. in Soldier Letters (1919) 164: We were under fire coming out of a woods; and, crossing an open field, I must have flopped at least fifteen times.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 11: As I flop I can see Pereira comin’ across.

15. (US) to copulate; to offer oneself for sex.

1930		J.J. Jones ‘More Sl.’ in AS V:4 305: As near as I can tell she flopped the boy.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 328: Unbutton that red dress she’s always wearing without any brassières under it, and flop her on the bed.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 128: ‘Morny will sure as hell kill him, if he doesn’t lay off Lois.’ ‘Go on with you. Lois flops at the drop of a hat. Anybody can see that.’.

16. (Aus.) to die.

1939		B. Appel Power-House 26: He started to shoot. He’s dead. He flopped away—.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 58: A few willing boys that wanted to see men flop. Any men.

17. (US prison) to deny a parole appeal; to be denied parole.

1944		C. Himes ‘There Ain’t No Justice’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 242: When I am in this joint ten years and have been flopped many times, I figure the parole board won’t release me.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 72/1: Flop, v. [...] 4. (Scattered prisons) To be denied parole.

18. (US) to demote, to dismiss.

1968		G. Radano Walking the Beat 66: While I’m on vacation the Chief Inspector’s men knock off a dice game in our sector [...] Anyway they flop every one of us who worked the sector.
1972		Knapp Commission Report Dec. 223: The usual price, he was told, was $500, but since Phillips had already been ‘flopped’ from the Detective Bureau it would cost him $1,000.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 160: A gold shield [...] can be broken back to uniform with terrible speed. It’s called ‘flopped back to the bag.’.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 15: Cops who got flopped back to patrol were put ‘back in the bag.’.

19. (UK black) to forget, to let down; to overlook.

2006		Ace & Invisible 1Xtra [BBC radio] My cousin, he flopped me.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 74: No way am I ducking any lecture or flopping assignments.