flop n.5
1. (US) a sleep.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Omaha Slim’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 110: A dime for a flop on de kip. | |
| ‘Gila Monster Route’ in Hobo 195: They took a flop with their hides plumb full. | |
| ‘Logger Talk’ in AS I:3 138: After a ‘flop’ on his bunk the logger ‘lets ’er settle’. |
2. (US) a cheap apartment, room or rented bed.
| 30 Years on Bowery. 70: You can get a bed in a lodging-house for ten cents, or if you have only seven cents you can get a ‘flop’ . | |
| Snare of the Road 101: I had vainly tried to scare up the price of a Bowery flop. | |
| Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 12 May 12/2: ‘They’s a screen in one corner, an’ a keester in the other, an’ a flop over agin the wall’. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 104: They made their headquarters at the various apartment houses and rooming houses where the leading spirits maintained their ‘flops’ (a flop is a place in which to sleep). | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Night and the City 220: The things they do, for a square meal and a flop. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 175: Whisky for fifteen cents, love for a dollar and a five-cent flop. | |
| Walk on the Wild Side 68: ‘What’s the accomodation?’ ‘One meal, one flop, one shower apiece.’. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 108: She fell in the nearest bar and stayed until another offer of a flop was made. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 85: He looked around the cheap room.‘Not too bad. Most of these flops don’t even have a carpet.’. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) ‘Russian Blackie’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 102: He as a good spender and one always ate – and got a flop. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 159: A typical bachelor flop: living room/bedroom combo, bathroom, kitchenette. | |
| ‘My Life as a Creep’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 126: I rented a cheap flop in Hollywood. | |
| Can’t Be Satisfied 278: Muddy's first flop, at 3652 Calumet, is erased, a vacant lot in a row of stone buildings. | |
| ‘Hot Rod Heart’ in Life During Wartime 117: [He] started walking to Troy and Roxy’s flop. | |
| Widespread Panic 65: The Sweetzer listening post. A two-bedroom flop in a Deco dive. |
3. (US prison) one’s last night/morning in jail.
 | Times Despatch (Richmond, VA) 17 Oct. 7/7: Flop — One night left to serve . | |
| et al. DAUL 72/1: Flop, n. [...] 3. (P) The last night of a prison sentence. ‘Two (days) and a flop and I hit the street (go free).’. | |
| Prison Sl. 30: Wake Up An inmate’s last morning in prison [...] (Archaic: flop, roll-over). |
4. (US Und.) a legless beggar.
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 446: Flop, a legless beggar. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 77: Flops.–Legless beggars, and used in the singular or plural as indicated. |
5. (US) an act of sexual intercourse.
| Let Tomorrow Come 44: You get a hideful o’ scat once in a while an’ a flop with some old haybag. | |
| I, Mobster 8: The poor broken-down whores that hung out on the corner [...] looking to make four bits for a flop. | |
| Madball (2019) 125: Trixie wanted [five dollars] for a quick flop and twenty to spend the night, so he hadn’t had Trixie too often. |
6. (US und.) an act of murder, a killing.
| Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘Stein got his last night.’ ‘That baby was riding for a flop. How’d they hand it to him?’. |
7. a blow.
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 119: Whoever took a flop at me with that club was pullin’ his weight all right. |
8. (US) a seat.
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad 76: Grab a flop Sit down, have a chair. |
9. (US) a drunk who has passed out and as such is a possible victim for a robber.
| Junkie (1966) 44: A sleeping lush – known as a ‘flop’ in the trade – attracts a hierarchy of scavengers. |
10. (UK Und.) anywhere a thief or gang can leave the loot so as to avoid detection during the immediate aftermath of a crime.
| Signs of Crime 184: Flops Houses or garages where escaping thieves can safely offload weapons, implements or stolen property, thus leaving their own homes free of incriminating articles. | |
| A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 5: By the time we reached the flop, I was feeling the come-down. |
11. see flophouse n.
In derivatives
(orig. US) an extreme failure, esp. in a show business context.
| Your Broadway & Mine 27 Dec. [synd. col.] A floperoo called ‘These Few Ashes’ [...] laid an egg. | |
| Great Magoo 138: This town is baggy at the knees with floperoos. | |
| ‘Raw, Medium, and Well Done’ in Blue Ribbon Western June 🌐 The meeting is a floperoo, meaning no dice. | |
| Essex Newsman 22 Aug. 3/5: It's no good, old boy [...] a grade A floperoo. | |
| Guardian 25 Sept. 🌐 So sorry about the dome. It was, after all, a bit of a disaster. [...] So sorry about the Millennium Commission, guardians of this floperoo, choosers of the site, masters of doomed revels. |
In compounds
a hostel, a cheap lodging.
| Indep. Rev. 25 June 6: They travelled around the country from one flop-and-slop to another. |
(US Und.) money set aside for lodging.
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
see separate entry.
(US) a tramp’s lodging, a cheap hotel.
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/1: Flop joint — Lodging house. | |
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. | |
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 238: Sammy could snap any moment he wanted to drop him back into the ratholes and the flop-joints again. | |
| et al. DAUL 72/2: Flop-joint. Any cheap hotel or lodging house; also, a local jail where vagabonds sleep overnight. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Hills were Joyful Together (1966) 224: He wouldn’t mind sleeping with one of the younger flossies [...] in one of those flop-joints down that street. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 13: Go to a flop joint where you belong. | |
| Orange Blossom Boys 108: We lived in a flop joint in New York City. |
see flopper n. (2)
(US) that area of a tramps’ lodging house where one actually sleeps.
| New York Day By Day 11 Sept. [synd. col.] The famous Alligator Flop House on the Bowery where two may split a glass of beer and then sleep all night in the flop room in the rear. |
(US tramp) one who robs sleepers, usu. fellow tramps.
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 77: FLOP WORKER.–One who robs sleepers in railroad waiting rooms, public parks or on the trains. |
In phrases
1. to sit or fall down.
| DSUE (8th edn) 409/2: from ca. 1870. |
2. of a woman, to prostrate oneself for intercourse.
| Put on the Spot 75: He was on the make, though he didn’ have to be—every broad what ever saw him did a flop for him. |
3. to faint.
| DSUE (8th edn) 409/2: WWI [...] mid-C20. |
(US Und.) to go to bed.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
1. (Aus.) of a boxer, to lose deliberately, to ‘take a dive’.
| ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/3: ‘Well, we could back my bloke, couldn’t we? [...] And Gorilla could take a flop?’. |
2. to get into bed.
| Teen-Age Mafia 97: The bed springs creaked as he took a flop for himself. |