Meaning & use
flop
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To drop or fall heavily and loosely, without control.
Grammar: No object; usually followed by down, onto or into: flop onto the sofa.
Patterns
- flop down
- flop onto something
He flopped onto the sofa after a long shift.
The tired puppy flopped down beside the bowl.
Her wet hair flopped over her eyes.
verbintransitiveinformal
To fail badly, especially a show, product or plan that people expected to succeed.
Grammar: No object: the film flopped.
Patterns
- flop at the box office
The sequel flopped at the box office.
His first restaurant flopped within a year.
The new phone flopped because it was too expensive.
nouncountableinformal
A complete failure, especially of a show, product or event.
Grammar: Plural: flops; also describes a heavy fall.
Patterns
- a flop at something
- a commercial flop
The musical was a flop and closed in a week.
Her cooking experiment turned out to be a flop.
With no advertising, the product was a total flop.
Word forms
| third person singular | flops |
|---|---|
| past tense | flopped |
| past participle | flopped |
| -ing form | flopping |
Common combinations
- box office flop
- The expensive epic was a box office flop.
- flop down
- They flopped down on the grass after the run.
- total flop
- The party was a total flop; only three people came.
- flop around
- The fish flopped around on the deck.
- flop spectacularly
- The launch flopped spectacularly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fail
- Fail is neutral and works in any context, while flop is informal and about public disappointment.
- bomb
- Bomb is stronger and slang, describing an utter disaster, especially in American English.
- fiasco
- Fiasco stresses a messy, embarrassing event rather than lack of success.
- slump
- Slump means to sink or decline gradually, not to fail at once.
Opposites
Word family
- floppy adjective
- soft and hanging loosely
- floppiness noun
- quality of being soft and loose
- floppy disk noun
- an old flexible data storage disk
- flophouse noun
- a very cheap, run-down hotel
Commonly confused: flop or flap?
flop vs flap
A flap is a hanging piece or a quick movement; to flop is to drop loosely or fail.
Practice
The studio expected a hit, but the movie ___ and earned almost nothing.
Choose one answer.
Flopped means failed badly. The others have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “flop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.