subs. (American colloquial).—1.  An idler, a LOAFER (q.v.) or LAWRENCE (q.v.).

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  2.  (Also FLUNK-OUT).—A failure, especially (at college) in recitations; a backing out of undertakings.

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  1853.  Songs of Yale.

        In moody meditation sunk,
Reflecting on my future FLUNK.

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  1877.  Brunonian, 24 Feb. A FLUNK is a complete fizzle; and a DEAD FLUNK is where one refuses to get out of his seat.

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  1888.  Missouri Republican, 11 Feb. Riddleberger forced the presidential possibilities of the senate to a complete FLUNK.

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  Verb (American).—To retire through fear; to fail (as in a lesson); to cause to fail. Cf., FUNK.

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  1838.  J. C. NEAL, Charcoal Sketches, ‘Rocky Smalt.’ Why, little ’un, you must be cracked, if you FLUNK OUT before we begin.

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  1847.  The Yale Banger, 22 Oct. My dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and FLUNK in my presence tower above me.

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  1853.  Amherst Indicator, p. 253. They know that a man who has FLUNKED, because too much of a genius to get his lesson, is not in a state to appreciate joking.

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  1871.  JOHN HAY, ‘Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle,’ in Pike County Ballads.

        But he never FLUNKED, and he never lied,—
  I reckon he never knowed how.

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