Definition

1. Verb:

   • To fall, move, or sit down heavily and with a loose, relaxed motion: This is the core meaning, describing a sudden, uncontrolled, and often noisy movement.
   • To fail completely: Used informally to describe a total lack of success, especially for a product, performance, or plan.

2. Noun:

   • A heavy, loose, or sudden fall or movement: The act or sound of something flopping.
   • A complete failure: An event, show, or product that is unsuccessful.

3. Adverb:

   • With a heavy, sudden motion and sound: Describes the manner of falling or moving in a flop.

Usage and Examples

• Verb (to fall/move heavily):

  • He was so tired he just flopped onto the sofa.
  • The fish flopped on the deck after being caught.

• Verb (to fail):

  • Despite high hopes, the new restaurant flopped and closed after three months.
  • The movie flopped at the box office.

• Noun (a fall/movement):

  • She sat down on the bed with a flop.
  • The flop of the wet rag on the floor was loud.

• Noun (a failure):

  • The product launch was a total flop; nobody bought it.
  • Critics called the play a flop.

• Adverb:

  • He fell flop on his face.
  • The book landed flop on the table.

Advanced Usage and Specialized Meanings

• Computing (FLOPS): An acronym for Floating-Point Operations Per Second, a measure of a computer's processing speed. This is a specialized, technical use.
  • This supercomputer can perform over a petaflop. (Note: Here, 'flop' is part of the acronym FLOPS).

Variants and Related Words

• Floppy (adj): Soft and loose; not firm. Often describes something that hangs or moves loosely.
  • The dog has floppy ears.
• Flop house (n, informal): A very cheap, low-quality hotel. (This is a compound word listed separately as per instructions).

Synonyms

• Verb (fall): Collapse, slump, tumble.
• Verb (fail): Fail, founder, bomb (informal).
• Noun (failure): Failure, disaster, fiasco, dud (informal).

Related Phrasal Verbs / Collocations

• Flop down: To sit or lie down heavily and without ceremony.
  • After work, I just flop down in front of the TV.
• Flop over: To fall or bend over loosely.
  • The flower stem flopped over in the vase.

Related Idioms

• A belly flop: A dive into water where the front of the body hits the surface flat, causing a painful slap. Often used metaphorically for an embarrassing failure.
  • His attempt at a joke was a complete belly flop.

Adverb

1. exactly
   • he fell flop on his face
2. with a flopping sound
   • he tumbled flop into the mud

Noun

1. the act of throwing yourself down
   • he landed on the bed with a great flop
2. a complete failure
   • the play was a dismal flop
3. someone who is unsuccessful
4. an arithmetic operation performed on floating-point numbers
   • this computer can perform a million flops per second

Verb

1. fail utterly; collapse
   • The project foundered
2. fall suddenly and abruptly
3. fall loosely
   • He flopped into a chair