1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. ’E carnt flop a bloke.
Adv. (colloquial).—An onomatopœia expressive of the noise of a sudden
and sounding fall. Often used expletively, as slap (q.v.) is, and the
American right (q.v.)
1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London, Act I., Sc. 2. That down came I
flop o’ my feace all along in the channel.
1860. Punch, v. 38, p. 255. ’Twixt two stools, flop, he let me
drop, The fall it was my murther.
1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. vi. ‘She’ll roll down,
papa, and come flop.’
To flop over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn heavily; hence (in
America), to make a sudden change of sides, association, or allegiance.
Flop-Up, subs. (American).—A day’s tramp, as opposed to a sot-down =
half a day’s travel.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 15 Sept. ‘Stranger, did ye lope it?’
(come on foot). ‘Yes.’ ‘A mile or a sot down?’ ‘More’n that. About
a dozen flop-ups.’
Flop-up-time = Bedtime.
[Flop, too, is something of a vocable of all-work. Thus to flop in
= (venery) to effect intromission; to flop round = to loaf; to
dangle; to flop a judy = to lay out, or ‘spread’ (q.v.), a girl; to
do a flop = (colloquial) to sit, or to fall, down, and (venery) to
lie down to a man; to flop out = to leave the water noisily and
awkwardly; belly-flopping = belly-bumping, coition; a flop in the
gills = a smack in the mouth.]
Florence, subs. (old)—‘A wench that has been touzed and ruffled.’
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, and (1785) Grose, s.v.
Floster, subs. (common).—A mixed drink: sherry, noyau, peach-leaves,
lemon, sugar, ice, and soda-water. Cf., Flesh-and-blood.
Flouch. To fall (or go), flouch (or floush), verb. phr.
(colloquial).—To come to pieces; to sag suddenly on the removal of a
restraining influence: as a pair of stays.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 13. Old Georgy went floush, and his
backers look’d shy.
Flounce, verb. (colloquial).—To move with violence, and (generally) in
anger. Said of women, for whom such motion is, or rather was,
inseparable from a great flourishing of flounces.
Flounder, subs. (riverside thieves’).—1. A drowned corpse. Cf., Dab,
and for synonyms, see Stiff.
2. (Stock Exchange).—To sell, and afterwards re-purchase a stock, or
vice versâ.
1889. Echo, 1 Feb. A third expedient offers itself—namely, to turn
round and buy; but this operation goes by the name of ‘floundering’
especially when the speculator loses both ways.
Flounder-and-Dab, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A cab. For synonyms, see
Growler.
Flour, subs. (American).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
Flourish, subs. (venery).—Coition in a hurry; flyer (q.v.); a fast-fuck
(q.v.). Also verbally. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.
1796. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. To enjoy a
woman with her clothes on or without going to bed.
Verb (colloquial.).—To be in luck: e.g., ‘I flourish’ = ‘I am well
off’; ‘Do you flourish,’ or ‘Are you flourishing?’ = ‘Have you got any
money?’
Flourishing, adj. (colloquial).—A retort to the enquiry, ‘How are you?’
The equivalent of ‘Pretty well, thank you?’
To flourish it, verb. phr. (venery).—To expose the person.
Flower, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. Also Flower-pot. For
synonyms, see Monosyllable.