flip out

verb

flipped out; flipping out; flips out

intransitive verb

informal

: to lose one's reason or composure

She's going to flip out when she sees the great present I got her!

"We were flipping out [from worry] and crying," Yvonne White said. "It was just getting worse and worse."

—Sydney Page

especially : to become very angry

… he flipped out on the server when they messed up his wife's order.

—Ajani Bazile

transitive verb

informal

: to cause (someone) to lose reason or composure

But it wasn't until he saw a homemade e-bike in the back of a neighbor's pickup truck about five years ago that he truly fell in love. "It flipped me out. It looked like a tiny motorcycle," [Andrew] Willner said.

—Lissa Harris

"I fell asleep with my makeup on, and when I woke up, my eyes were swollen shut from an allergic reaction to the silver paint. I couldn't see a thing, and it flipped me out."

—Ace Frehley

Examples of flip out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cory, who at this point has smoke billowing out of every orifice, flips out on Josh, who’s just betrayed him for the second time. —Emma Sharpe, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2024

At the end, the song flips out into bursts of distorted glitch-core noise. —Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 25 Oct. 2024

The display flips out and turns round for great versatility and is especially useful for taking selfies. —David Phelan, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2024

No one should flip out over J.K. Dobbins’ start (Brian Westerholt / Associated Press) After getting caught from behind on a 61-yard run in the Chargers’ season-opening win over the Raiders, Dobbins promised to work on his fitness to make sure that didn’t happen again. —Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1959, in the meaning defined at transitive sense