flopped; flopping
1
: to swing or move loosely : flap
2
: to throw or move oneself in a heavy, clumsy, or relaxed manner
flopped into the chair
3
: to change or turn suddenly
4
: to go to bed
a place to flop at night
5
: to fail completely
the play flopped
: to move or drop heavily or noisily : cause to flop
flopped the bundles down
flopper
noun
plural flops
: a unit of measure for calculating the speed of a computer equal to one floating-point operation per second
Supplied by IBM, with a billion flops (floating point operations per second) and a capacity to expand to 60 billion flops with the addition of other processors and memory, it will be among the 10 most sophisticated computers in the world.—
Eleanor Wilson
—usually used in combinationEleanor Wilsongigaflop
A GPU [=graphics processing unit] can deliver hundreds of billions of operations per second—some GPUs more than a teraflop, or a trillion operations per second—while requiring only slightly more electrical power and cooling than a CPU.—Andrea Di Blas et al.
Andrea Di Blas et al.Examples of flop in a Sentence
Verb
He flopped down onto the bed.
She flopped into the chair with a sigh.
All of their attempts have flopped miserably.
The curtains were flopping around in the breeze.
Noun (1)
The movie was a total flop.
It fell to the ground with a flop.
Recent Examples on the Web
Ryan MacAsero, The Mercury News, 13 Feb. 2025
If Hicks flops in the spring and is offered back to the Tigers — and if Ramirez begins the season at Triple A — then the Marlins will need to claim a veteran backup because Jhonny Pereda was traded to the Athletics last Friday.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 5 Feb. 2025
Michael Cappetta, Travel + Leisure, 18 Feb. 2025
Unlike his brother Jason — who spent most of his NFL career wearing flip flops and sweats to games — Travis likes to take big swings with fashion.
—Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 6 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for flop
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Verb
Related Articles Big Oakland hotel flops into loan default as local lodging woes widen
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Berkeley losing money due to poor lease management practices, audit finds
Decades later, the mountain remains vulnerable to development pressures.
—Ryan MacAsero, The Mercury News, 13 Feb. 2025
If Hicks flops in the spring and is offered back to the Tigers — and if Ramirez begins the season at Triple A — then the Marlins will need to claim a veteran backup because Jhonny Pereda was traded to the Athletics last Friday.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 5 Feb. 2025
Noun
The airline also shared a fun beach image complete with flip flops and towels to inspire spring travelers to book vacations.
—Michael Cappetta, Travel + Leisure, 18 Feb. 2025
Unlike his brother Jason — who spent most of his NFL career wearing flip flops and sweats to games — Travis likes to take big swings with fashion.
—Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 6 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for flop
Cite this Entry
“Flop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flop. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
flop
1 of 2 verb
flopped; flopping
1
: to swing or bounce loosely : flap about
a hat brim flopping
2
a
: to throw oneself down in a heavy, clumsy, or relaxed manner
flopped into the chair
b
: to throw or drop suddenly and heavily or noisily
flopped the bundles down with a thud
3
: to fail completely
the play flopped
flop
2 of 2 noun1
: an act or sound of flopping
2
: a complete failure : dud
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