flunk v.
1. (US campus, also flunk out) to fail an examination or course.
 | Yale Crayon in (1856) 3: We must have, at least, as many subscribers as there are students in College, or ‘flunk out’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Yale Banger 22 Oct. in (1856) 203: My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me. | |
| Amherst Indicator in (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. | |
| College Words (rev. edn) 206: The phrase to flunk out [...] is of the same nature as the above word [i.e. flunk]. | |
| 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]. | |
| 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. | |
| 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?’. | |
| Torchy 122: I’ve flunked. I think I’d better go down in the morning and resign. | |
| 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. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Rampant Age 41: He [...] didn’t care whether he passed, flunked or got kicked out. | |
| (con. 1910s) Behind The Green Lights 186: He eventually had flunked in his college examinations. | |
| Neon Wilderness (1986) 29: We tried [enlisting in] the regular Army, ’n he flunked that too. | |
| Battle Cry (1964) 132: I’m glad you flunked out. | |
| Ginger Man (1958) 11: All you need to do now is flunk your law exams and bingo. | |
| Voices from the Love Generation 63: I had flunked my orals. | |
| Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 23: ‘The first thing you know I flunked out’. | |
| Picture Palace 214: I reminded him that he was playing hooky and might just flunk his bar exam. | |
| Foxes (1980) 12: She’s gonna flunk out, you know. | |
| On the Stroll 273: She was flunking every question they asked her. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Cotton-Picking Genius’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] They flunk school, they’re badly educated. | |
| Night Dogs 257: ‘I flunked French one-oh-one’. | |
| Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 46: It was in the following school year that he flunked for the first time. | |
| Nature Girl 258: Back to FSU, I guess. Try not to flunk out this term. | |
| Class Act [ebook] He’d flunked his exams and dropped out. | |
| ‘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.
| 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.
| Yale Literary Mag. IX. 61: That day poor Fullman was flunked, and was never again reinstated in the good graces of our officer. | |
| Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 5: flunk [...] 5. To condition a student in a semester’s work. 6. To cause to fail. | |
| More Ex-Tank Tales 211: Flunked, hey? [...] Don’t think you’d like to be a sailor? | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Truth (Salt Lake City) 6 Jan. 11/1: It counts little to ‘flunk out’ an occasional illiterate ‘football hero’. | |
| 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. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 412: Lorene looked rather like a girl who has failed to pass her finals and been flunked out. | |
| Spook who Sat by the Door (1972) 19: It will cost us a bit to flunk out six or eight a year. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 245: ‘I always get my homework done and so they can’t flunk me’. | |
| 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. | |
| 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.
| 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. | |
| (con. 1944) Naked and Dead 553: In June, after he has flunked out, it is hard to face his father. | |
| 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. | |
| letter 13 Apr. Proud Highway (1997) 212: I got a vague rumor [...] that you were ready to flunk out of Vandy. | |
| It (1987) 89: He had flunked out of LSU his first semester, a victim of drink, drugs and all-night parties. | |
| 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. | |
| Pimp’s Rap 29: Kid, you just flunked out of pimp school. | |
| 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.
| Charcoal Sketches (1865) 46: You must be cracked if you flunk out before we begin. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. V 27: What’s the matter, Charley, you’re not going to flunk out, are you? | |
| diary n.d. in Winther With Sherman to the Sea (1958) 99: Chorus : There is fi(gh)ting Bob who is sure to flunk. | |
| ‘Jim Bludso’ Pike County Ballads 15: But he never flunked, and he never lied, I reckon he never knowd how. | |
| Dodge City Democrat 12 Jan. in Why the West was Wild 424: He wouldn’t lie and he couldn’t flunk, I reckon he didn’t know how. | |
| (con. 1861) Rock Island Argus (IL) 2 June 3/5: You are not going to flunk out, are you? | |
| 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. | |
| On Board a Whaler 326: True’s as your alive he did—he flunked. | |
| Bar-20 Days 37: ‘Well, I’ll bet twenty-five dollars he flunks!’ breathed the bartender. | |
| Ruggles of Red Gap (1917) 263: He flunked a meeting of the Onwards and Upwards Society. | |
| Long Good-Bye 22: Some day she’ll need me [...] Likely enough then I’ll flunk out. | |
| Awopbop. (1970) 186: It got to be quite addictive – groups would [...] flunk out on work. | |
| Come Monday Morning 169: I woulda flunked out just like your mother said. | |
| (con. 1968) Where the Rivers Ran Backward 258: Okay, been to Nam. Shit, you didn’t flunk out, did you? | |
| Dreamcatcher 156: Ritchie Grenadeau, who had [...] flunked off the football team. |
6. to fail a student; to give a fail mark.
| 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]. | |
| Varmint 101: Dished! Spinked! He’ll flunk me every day. I certainly am in the wrong! | |
| Harbor (1919) 57: He ‘flunked’ the worst twenty and let the rest through. | |
| 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. | |
| World So Wide 55: I’m going to get a D Minus in her class [...] She’d just efficiently flunk me. | |
| Getting Straight 42: An increased opportunity to flunk this troublemaker. | |
| 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.
| Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 5: flunk [...] to fail in an undertaking, to make a botch of anything. | |
| DN II 35: Flunk, v.i. [...] 2. To fail in an undertaking. | |
| Partners 304: We’ve flunked once, and [...] no more big jobs’ll come our way [DAE]. | |
| Torchy 122: I’ve flunked. I think I’d better go down in the morning and resign. | |
| House of Cain 122: Bullets ‘flunked’ into the straw-stuffed pack-saddles. | |
| ‘The Junkie’ in et al. Life (1976) 101: If that broad hadn’t run, I’d have got up and done / What I had flunked at first. | |
| London Fields 263: It was hard getting back into London: I nearly flunked even that. | |
| Homicide (1993) 217: You flunked [...] You’re lying. | |
| Watergate 154: After flunking his test assignment with Martha, Baldwin was quickly reassigned by McCord. |
8. (orig. US) to do a skimpy, inadequate job.
| Paper Tiger 121: The other Boston papers flunked the riot entirely. | |
| Guardian Guide 15–21 May 55: A [...] psychological thriller that flunks on the psychology. |