3. (American).—Used in the passive sense = to abandon a purpose; to
give in; to die.
Subs. (American University).—A bad recitation; a failure.
Flummoxed, ppl. adj. (thieves’ and general).—1. Spoilt; ruined; drunk;
sent down (q.v.); boshed (q.v.); defeated; disappointed; silenced;
floored (q.v.).
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiii., p. 283. ‘And my ’pinion is,
Sammy, that if your governor don’t prove an alleybi, he’ll be what
the Italians call reg’larly flummoxed, and that’s all about it.’
1840. Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 170. So many of the men I know Were
flummoxed at the last great go.
1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus, p. 17. I felt flummox’d in a
brown (study understood) old fellow.
1864. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 742. ‘I say, Tom.’ ‘Yes, mate.’
‘If I should have a fit heave a bucket of water over me.’ Tom was
too astonished, or, as he expressed it, conflummoxed to make any
reply.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 25 July, p. 2, col. 1. I’ll give Tom his
due, and say of him that for flummoxing a cuss (Custom House
Officer) or working the weed, I don’t know any one he couldn’t give
a chalk to and beat ’em.
1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. I’m fair flummoxed, and singing, ‘Oh,
what a surprise!’
Flummocky, adj. (colloquial).—Out of place; in bad taste.
1891. F. H. Groome. Blackwood’s Mag., March, p. 319. ‘It is a nice
solemn dress,’ she said, as she lifted a piece to examine it more
closely; ‘there’s nothing flummocky about it.’
Flummut, subs. (vagrants’).—A month in prison. See flummoxed. For
synonyms, see Dose.
1889. Answers, 20th July, p. 121, col. 2. If you want to get rid of
an importunate tramp tell him to ‘stow his patter,’ or you will get
him a flummut.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He
[patterer] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one
or two instances.... ‘Flummut,’ sure of a month in quod.
Flump, verb. (colloquial).—To fall, put, or be set, down with violence
or a thumping noise. Onomatopœic. Also to come down with a Flump. Cf.,
Plump and Cachunk.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, ch. v. Chairs were flumped down
on the floor.
1865. H. Kingsley, The Hillyars and the Burtons, ch. lxii. Before
my mother had been a week in the partly-erected slab-house, the
women began to come in, to flump down into a seat and tell her all
about it.
Flunk, subs. (American colloquial).—1. An idler, a Loafer (q.v.) or
Lawrence (q.v.).
2. (Also Flunk-out).—A failure, especially (at college) in recitations;
a backing out of undertakings.
1853. Songs of Yale. In moody meditation sunk, Reflecting on my
future flunk.
1877. Brunonian, 24th Feb. A flunk is a complete fizzle; and a dead
flunk is where one refuses to get out of his seat.
1888. Missouri Republican, 11th Feb. Riddleberger forced the
presidential possibilities of the senate to a complete flunk.
Verb. (American).—To retire through fear; to fail (as in a lesson); to
cause to fail. Cf., Funk.
1838. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, IV. Why, little ’un, you must be
cracked, if you flunk out before we begin.
1847. The Yale Banger, 22 Oct. My dignity is outraged at beholding
those who fizzle and flunk in my presence tower above me.
1853. Amherst Indicator, p. 253. They know that a man who has
flunked, because too much of a genius to get his lesson, is not in
a state to appreciate joking.
1871. John Hay, ‘Jim Bludso of the Prairie Bell,’ in New York
Tribune, Jan. But he never flunked, and he never lied, I reckon he
never know’d how.
Flunkey, subs. (nautical).—1. A ship’s steward.