Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus, also flunk out) to fail an examination or course.

1823		Yale Crayon in Hall (1856) 3: We must have, at least, as many subscribers as there are students in College, or ‘flunk out’.
1847		Yale Banger 22 Oct. in Hall (1856) 203: My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me.
1853		Amherst Indicator in Hall (1856) I 253: They know that a man who has flunked because too much of a genius to get his lesson, is not in the state to appreciate joking.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 206: The phrase to flunk out [...] is of the same nature as the above word [i.e. flunk].
1887		Lippincott’s Monthly Mag. (Phila.) Aug. 291: The students gather in the recitation-rooms, where they ‘rush’ or ‘flunk,’ according as they have studied the night before or been ‘out on a lark’ [DA].
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 5: flunk 1. vi. To fail in a recitation, or to give up without an effort. 2. To fail in a semester’s work. 3. To fail in an examination.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 214: ‘He’ll expect you to talk Greek and Latin, and when you flunk on that he’ll wonder — ’ [...] ‘How do you know I’ll flunk? What’ll you bet I’ll flunk?’.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 122: I’ve flunked. I think I’d better go down in the morning and resign.
1920		Bismark Trib. (ND) 13 Sept. 2/4: The beauty about the army courses is, once a man starts [...] he must complete it. There is no such thing as ‘flunk out’. He may flunk but he is not out.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 41: He [...] didn’t care whether he passed, flunked or got kicked out.
1931		(con. 1910s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 186: He eventually had flunked in his college examinations.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 29: We tried [enlisting in] the regular Army, ’n he flunked that too.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 132: I’m glad you flunked out.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 11: All you need to do now is flunk your law exams and bingo.
1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 63: I had flunked my orals.
1969		C. Sellers Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 23: ‘The first thing you know I flunked out’.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 214: I reminded him that he was playing hooky and might just flunk his bar exam.
1979		D. Gram Foxes (1980) 12: She’s gonna flunk out, you know.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 273: She was flunking every question they asked her.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Cotton-Picking Genius’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] They flunk school, they’re badly educated.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 257: ‘I flunked French one-oh-one’.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 46: It was in the following school year that he flunked for the first time.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 258: Back to FSU, I guess. Try not to flunk out this term.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] He’d flunked his exams and dropped out.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 76: If Sam and Haddad flunk the poly, it will give the insurance company grounds to deny the claim.

2. (US gambling, also flunk out) to ‘fold’ one’s cards.

1853

N.Y. Clipper 28 May 1/3: ‘Down with your dust, I say. [The bettor hesitates.] Do you flunk out, then?’ ‘Yes, I flummux this time...’.

3. (US campus, also flunk out) to dismiss on the grounds of academic failure.

1843		Yale Literary Mag. IX. 61: That day poor Fullman was flunked, and was never again reinstated in the good graces of our officer.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 5: flunk [...] 5. To condition a student in a semester’s work. 6. To cause to fail.
1902		C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 211: Flunked, hey? [...] Don’t think you’d like to be a sailor?
1906		Truth (Salt Lake City) 6 Jan. 11/1: It counts little to ‘flunk out’ an occasional illiterate ‘football hero’.
1908		L.A. Herald 8 Jan. 5/6: The second semester at Standford university opened today [...] the ranks of the first semester were seriously depleted by the ‘flunk out’ committee.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 412: Lorene looked rather like a girl who has failed to pass her finals and been flunked out.
1969		S. Greenlee Spook who Sat by the Door (1972) 19: It will cost us a bit to flunk out six or eight a year.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 245: ‘I always get my homework done and so they can’t flunk me’.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 27: If you’re a dead loss they have a previous engagement; if not, you’re invited to dinner. I was pleased that he hadn’t flunked me.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 23: There was no way he was going to flunk me and have me back.

4. (orig. US campus, also flunk out) to leave or be dismissed from an institution, usu. on the grounds of academic failure.

1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 42: He’ll fail his exams, tutor all summer at Harstrum’s, get into Sheff with about four conditions, and flunk out in the middle of freshman year.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 553: In June, after he has flunked out, it is hard to face his father.
1957		H.S. Thompson letter 6 Feb. Proud Highway (1997) 44: You’re the first person I’ve heard from who failed to mention the possibility of flunking out of school.
1960		H.S. Thompson letter 13 Apr. Proud Highway (1997) 212: I got a vague rumor [...] that you were ready to flunk out of Vandy.
1986		S. King It (1987) 89: He had flunked out of LSU his first semester, a victim of drink, drugs and all-night parties.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 71: He had joined the Marine Corps to become a fighter pilot but quickly flunked out of flight school and was left with a six-year enlistment as a grunt.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 29: Kid, you just flunked out of pimp school.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] Studied literature at university? [...] Oh, you didn’t, you flunked out.

5. (US, also flunk out) to give in, to back down or renege in a cowardly manner.

1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 46: You must be cracked if you flunk out before we begin.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. V 27: What’s the matter, Charley, you’re not going to flunk out, are you?
1864		T.F. Upson diary n.d. in Winther With Sherman to the Sea (1958) 99: Chorus : There is fi(gh)ting Bob who is sure to flunk.
1871		J. Hay ‘Jim Bludso’ Pike County Ballads 15: But he never flunked, and he never lied, I reckon he never knowd how.
1884		Dodge City Democrat 12 Jan. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 424: He wouldn’t lie and he couldn’t flunk, I reckon he didn’t know how.
1894		(con. 1861) Rock Island Argus (IL) 2 June 3/5: You are not going to flunk out, are you?
1897		Red Cloud (Webster Co., NE) 12 Feb. 7/5: The Fitzsimmons party was in a pretty bad way financially and was going to flunk out of the [...] bet with Corbett.
1901		T. Hammond On Board a Whaler 326: True’s as your alive he did—he flunked.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 37: ‘Well, I’ll bet twenty-five dollars he flunks!’ breathed the bartender.
1915		H.L. Wilson Ruggles of Red Gap (1917) 263: He flunked a meeting of the Onwards and Upwards Society.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 22: Some day she’ll need me [...] Likely enough then I’ll flunk out.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 186: It got to be quite addictive – groups would [...] flunk out on work.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 169: I woulda flunked out just like your mother said.
1989		(con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 258: Okay, been to Nam. Shit, you didn’t flunk out, did you?
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 156: Ritchie Grenadeau, who had [...] flunked off the football team.

6. to fail a student; to give a fail mark.

1876		Wheatland Free Press 4 Mar. 2/2: The Professor is readier with his stock of puzzling questions to ‘flunk’ the student, who spent his time ‘bumming’ the night before, depending on luck for his next day’s success [DA].
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 101: Dished! Spinked! He’ll flunk me every day. I certainly am in the wrong!
1915		E. Poole Harbor (1919) 57: He ‘flunked’ the worst twenty and let the rest through.
1940		E.F. Frazier Negro Youth 105: ‘[T]he dark children wouldn’t get credit for what they did. I suppose they meant that if you made a certain mark, you weren’t apt to receive it, or if you really passed an examination, they may flunk you.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 55: I’m going to get a D Minus in her class [...] She’d just efficiently flunk me.
1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 42: An increased opportunity to flunk this troublemaker.
1978		R. De Christoforo Grease 61: Every teacher I got has flunked me at least once!

7. (US) to fail (in a non-academic context), to blunder, to make a mistake.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 5: flunk [...] to fail in an undertaking, to make a botch of anything.
1900		DN II 35: Flunk, v.i. [...] 2. To fail in an undertaking.
1905		J.C. Lincoln Partners 304: We’ve flunked once, and [...] no more big jobs’ll come our way [DAE].
1911		S. Ford Torchy 122: I’ve flunked. I think I’d better go down in the morning and resign.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 122: Bullets ‘flunked’ into the straw-stuffed pack-saddles.
a.1956		‘The Junkie’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 101: If that broad hadn’t run, I’d have got up and done / What I had flunked at first.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 263: It was hard getting back into London: I nearly flunked even that.
1991		D. Simon Homicide (1993) 217: You flunked [...] You’re lying.
2022		G.M. Graff Watergate 154: After flunking his test assignment with Martha, Baldwin was quickly reassigned by McCord.

8. (orig. US) to do a skimpy, inadequate job.

1964		S. Woodward Paper Tiger 121: The other Boston papers flunked the riot entirely.
1999		Guardian Guide 15–21 May 55: A [...] psychological thriller that flunks on the psychology.