Flop v.

colloq. and dial. [onomatopœic var. of FLAP v., the change of vowel indicating a duller or heavier sound.]

  1.  intr. To swing or sway about heavily and loosely; = FLAP v. 5.

1601.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. Wks. 1856, I. 60. Oh, to haue a husband with a mouth continually smoaking, with a bush of furs on the ridge of his chinne, readie still to flop into his foming chaps; ah, tis more than most intollerable.

1838.  Holloway, Dict. Provinc., s.v., ‘The sail flops against the mast.’

1883.  K. W. Hamilton, Nehemiah’s Plan, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. May, 845/1. After that one flash of spirit, however, it [a wet umbrella] drooped again, and one side flopped dejectedly.

  2.  To move clumsily or heavily; to move with a sudden bump or thud. Of a bird: To flap the wings heavily. Also with away, down, over, etc.

1692.  [See FLOPPING].

1827.  Clare, The Shepherd’s Calendar, January, 4.

1850.  P. Crook, War of Hats, 43.

1859.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 13. When I tried to ‘stand him on the ground’ (as the servants here say), he flopped over on his side, quite stiff and unconscious!

1870.  H. Smart, Race for Wife, x. She knew that she had carried on a systematic scale of robbery for years. She flopped down on her knees, and implored that mercy might be shown her, backing her entreaties with many sobs and tears.

1879.  Boddam-Whetham, Roraima, xi. 105. Tortoises flopped into the water from the branches.

1887.  Besant, The World Went Very Well Then, i. 7. Better lie buried with a mile of blue water over your head, and the whales flopping around your grave on the seaweed.

1887.  Lady Brassey, in Last Voy., ix. 222. The merry month of May does not commence very auspiciously, with a dirty grey sky, a still dirtier grey sea flopping up on our weather bow, and half a gale blowing.

  b.  fig. To flop over: to make a sudden change in one’s attitude or behaviour.

1892.  The Nation (N.Y.), 6 Oct., LV. 268/3. His [Sardou’s] characters … flop over and act in a way quite the reverse of what we had a right to expect.

  3.  trans. To throw suddenly, generally with the additional notion of making a bump or thud. Also with down, in, etc.

1823.  Moor, Suffolk Words, s.v. ‘A floppt his affections’ on such a one.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxxvi. 254. She … came on board, flopped herself into the standing bed-place, and said that there she was for the cruise.

a. 1845.  Hood, Agric. Distress, iii.

1854.  Baker, Northampton Gloss., I. 247. ‘How you flop it in!’

1859.  Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. i. ‘What do you mean by flopping yourself down and praying agin me?’

  4.  To move (wings, etc.) heavily and loosely up and down.

1859.  Tennent, Ceylon, II. VII. vii. 254. The earliest bird upon the wing is the crow, which leaves his perch almost with the first peep of dawn, cawing and flopping his wings in the sky.

1891.  Camb. Rev., XII. 12 March, 264/2. Though they started well each night they quite stopped swinging when they were gained on, and one or two of them at least sat with their eyes glued on the boat behind, and feebly flopping their hands about till the inevitable catastrophe happened.

  5.  To strike with a sudden blow. To flop up (the eyes): to bung up; = FLAP v. 1. dial.

1838.  Bywater, Sheffield (ed. 3), 227. If thah gets drunk, an flops a watchman’s een up, an gets intot hoil o’er it.

1888.  Sporting Life, 15 Dec., 5/5. ’E carnt flop a bloke.

  6.  U.S. College slang (see quot.).

1851.  B. H. Hall, College Words, s.v. ‘A man writes cards during examination to ‘feeze the profs’; said cards are ‘gumming cards,’ and he flops the examination if he gets a good mark by the means.’ One usually flops his marks by feigning sickness.

  Hence Flopping ppl. a.

1679.  Trial of Langhorn, 53. He had a gray Coat on, and plain Shooes, and a flopping Hat.

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccccix. 384. A Poor Simple Black-Bird was Frighted almost to Death with a Huge Flopping Kyte that she saw over her Head, Screaming and Scouring about for her Prey.

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 24.