Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fluke v.1

[ety. unknown]

to fail; as fluke up, to do badly.

[UK]B. Hemyng Eton School Days 203: I think I shall fluke doing Verses.
[US]Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: When he forgets [his lines] entirely he ‘flukes,’ ‘funks,’ ‘flats’ or ‘sticks.’.
[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 35: fluke, v. To fail utterly.
[US]E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 231: Maybe Jeremy Maxwell could afford to fluke that way, but damn if he could.
[US]Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 383: If Dinch was with us, it’s one hyste we never woulda fluke up.

In phrases

fluke out (v.)

(US) to die.

[US]W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 161: Fear is what rules them [...] Of an overdose. You fluke out. You die.
(con. 1950s) Charles Howe Valley of Fire 165: Rohr fluked out last night.
go up the fluke (v.)

(US campus) to fail in a recitation or examination.

[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 35: fluke [...] Also in phrase ‘to go up the fluke,’ to fail in recitation or examination.