Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to lose emotional control, to go mad.

1966		Current Sl. I:3 3/1: Flip out, v. To appear insane; to lose one’s mind.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 40: We really flipped out when Joanie pulled that whole Moonie number.
1983		R. Price Breaks 352: Tell me how to tell you this without you flipping out on me.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 291: ‘How could I flip out?’ I ask him [...] ‘You can call it battle fatigue.’.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 31: He flipped right out and took his own life.
2005		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.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 105: By then Mami was starting to flip seriously out.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 72: ‘Leon Ayliffe’s flipped out’.
2022		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.

1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 107: Fourteen-year-olds [...] ended up at your house some way or another, flipped out.
1973		in C. Browne Body Shop 144: I was caught once for talking Asthmadorm. I was really messed up [...] flipped out.

3. to be overjoyed.

1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: flip out – get excited: She flipped out when she got tickets for JCM’s concert.
1999		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.
2007		B. Coleman Check the Technique 30: ‘The guys flipped out once [the song] was done. They knew they had something amazing’.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] The pyramids! ‘My daughter would flip out,’ Evelyn told Mohammed.

4. to amaze someone, to delight.

1978		R. De Christoforo Grease 33: The guys were flipped out when we returned.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2007		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.

1960		‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 27: This flipped The Gasser! It also shook up the Indians.
1974		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: flip out – [...] 2. to cause a disturbance or commotion: Let’s try to flip out those people over there.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 57: It helped them win the war, but it flipped out a lot of officers.
2014		D. MacShane Prison Diaries 357: The brutal shock of prison must have easily flipped him.