Green’s Dictionary of Slang

flip out v.

[flip v.4 (2)]
(orig. US)

1. to lose emotional control, to go mad.

[US]Current Sl. I:3 3/1: Flip out, v. To appear insane; to lose one’s mind.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 40: We really flipped out when Joanie pulled that whole Moonie number.
[US]R. Price Breaks 352: Tell me how to tell you this without you flipping out on me.
[US](con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 291: ‘How could I flip out?’ I ask him [...] ‘You can call it battle fatigue.’.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 31: He flipped right out and took his own life.
[Ire]P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 179: I hear JP’s totally flipped out. [...] I heard he had a total breakdown.
[US]J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 105: By then Mami was starting to flip seriously out.
[Aus]G. Disher Consolation 72: ‘Leon Ayliffe’s flipped out’.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 22: [S]he figured that was how people on TV kept from flipping out.

2. to be intoxicated.

[US]L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 107: Fourteen-year-olds [...] ended up at your house some way or another, flipped out.
[US] in C. Browne Body Shop 144: I was caught once for talking Asthmadorm. I was really messed up [...] flipped out.

3. to be overjoyed.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: flip out – get excited: She flipped out when she got tickets for JCM’s concert.
[US]Newsday 7 Nov. G14: After the class, a white student [...] told Ramirez that the play would be performed at his church that weekend, and perhaps he would want to come. ‘I was, like, flipped out,’ he says, gushing even now.
[US]B. Coleman Check the Technique 30: ‘The guys flipped out once [the song] was done. They knew they had something amazing’.
[US]L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] The pyramids! ‘My daughter would flip out,’ Evelyn told Mohammed.

4. to amaze someone, to delight.

[US]R. De Christoforo Grease 33: The guys were flipped out when we returned.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
[US]B. Coleman Check the Technique 376: ‘[O]nce I started playing breaks they knew, they just flipped out’.

5. (also flip) to cause someone emotional problems.

[US]‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 27: This flipped The Gasser! It also shook up the Indians.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: flip out – [...] 2. to cause a disturbance or commotion: Let’s try to flip out those people over there.
[US]M. Baker Nam (1982) 57: It helped them win the war, but it flipped out a lot of officers.
[UK]D. MacShane Prison Diaries 357: The brutal shock of prison must have easily flipped him.