Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an unforeseen success, a piece of unexpected good luck; thus flukiness, fortuitous good fortune.

[1857		J.E. Ritchie Night Side of London 139: At each successful attempt the chorus was still more animated, [...] as ‘Good stroke,’-‘Bad flewke’ – ‘On the red,’ &c. &c. The game that was being played was called ‘pool’].
[1857		N&Q Ser. 2 IV 208/1: In playing at billiards, if a player makes a hazard, etc., which he did not play for, it is often said that he made a crow Another term is, He made a flook (or fluke)].
1860		Mt Alexander Mail (Vic.) 18 June 2/5: [He] said this was one of Mr Gravenor’s attempts at a fluke. His Honor thought this improper language.
1864		E. Yates Broken to Harness II 121: It’s a tremendous fluke.
1873		W. Black A Princess of Thule (1874) III 25: These conditions are not often fulfilled, I can tell you. It is a happy fluke when they are.
1880		H. Smart Social Sinners III 93: ‘I suppose, by your asking the question, you have become acquainted with Mr. Solano’s past.’ ‘That’s just it, Mr. Prossiter; by an odd fluke I have.’.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/3: Thereby proving that the trial with the railway train was no fluke—albeit, it appears a new method of trying racehorses.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 29: Fluke, playing for one thing and getting another.
1901		E.W. Hornung Black Mask (1992) 255: The whole thing was a fluke.
1911		A. Bennett Card (1974) 277: Useless for solemn experts to point out that he had simply been larking for the gallery, and that the result was a shocking fluke – Callear’s reputation was established.
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 83: When he himself achieved a glaring fluke, his self-reproachful click of the tongue was music to his adversary’s bruised soul.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 61: Bit of a fluke that it came off.
1946		G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 144: Both combats [...] were not organized as they should be, but complete flukes.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 18: It was a fluke [...] a lucky punch.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 101: A lucky fluke, was my verdict.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 162: He was a big enough target and it was a fluke I missed him.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 115: Today was to be Henry’s day of reckoning [...] to demonstrate on that brick edifice that his prowess at emitting wind was no fluke.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 238: Turned out a fluke, the pig was a straight one.
2004		R.T. Kelly Sean Penn: His Life and Times 206: It was a total fluke but the script went to CAA and then to Sean’s assistant, Alison Dickey.

2. (orig. US campus) a failure, a worthless person or thing.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 3: fluke n. A failure to recite.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 35: fluke, n. An utter failure.
1911		‘Madge The Society Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 106/1: It’s a rotten fluke we’ve made of it.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 220: [He] thought the call was a waste of time [...] I thought it sounded like a fluke, too.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 3: There’s Sam, who has friends, because he’s a fluke.

3. (Aus.) a lucky person.

1993

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 77: If [...] you haven’t been caught or jailed, then you are definitely a fluke.