Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To throw or toss with a light brisk motion.
  • intransitive verb To toss in the air, imparting a spin.
  • intransitive verb To cause to turn over or around, especially with a light quick motion.
  • intransitive verb To turn through (papers, for example); leaf.
  • intransitive verb To strike quickly or lightly; flick.
  • intransitive verb To move or act on with a quick motion.
  • intransitive verb To change or reverse (one's position or attitude).
  • intransitive verb To buy and resell (a house, for example) in a short period of time for a profit.
  • intransitive verb To turn over from one side to another or end over end.
  • intransitive verb To turn a somersault, especially in the air.
  • intransitive verb To move up and down in twists and turns.
  • intransitive verb To move quickly and lightly; snap.
  • intransitive verb To leaf; browse.
  • intransitive verb To change one's mind, especially on a political position.
  • intransitive verb To go crazy.
  • intransitive verb To react strongly and especially enthusiastically.
  • noun The act of flipping, especially.
  • noun A flick or tap.
  • noun A short, quick movement.
  • noun A somersault.
  • noun Informal A reversal; a flipflop.
  • noun A mixed drink made with any of various alcoholic beverages and often including beaten eggs.
  • adjective Marked by casual disrespect; impertinent.
  • idiom (flip (one's) lid) To react strongly, as with anger or enthusiasm.
  • idiom (flip (one's) lid) To go crazy.
  • idiom Slang (flip (someone) off) To make an obscene gesture toward (someone); give the finger to.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mixture of which ale, beer, or cider is the chief ingredient, sweetened, spiced, made sometimes with eggs (see egg-flip), and drunk hot.
  • noun A fillip; a flick; a snap.
  • Nimble; flippant.
  • To fillip; tap lightly; twitch.
  • To flick, as with a whip.
  • To toss with a snap of the thumb, or the like: as, to flip up a penny in playing “heads and tails.”
  • To flap.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To become insane or irrational; -- often used with out.
  • noun A mixture of beer, spirit, etc., stirred and heated by a hot iron.
  • noun an iron used, when heated, to warm flip.
  • transitive verb To toss (an object) into the air so as make it turn over one or more times; to fillip.
  • transitive verb To turn (a flat object) over with a quick motion.
  • transitive verb cant To cause (a person) to turn against former colleagues, such as to become a witness for the state, in a criminal prosecution in which the person is a defendant.
  • transitive verb (Finance), cant To resell (an asset) rapidly to make a quick profit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective UK, informal Having the quality of playfulness, or lacking seriousness of purpose.
  • adjective sarcastic

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps imitative.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From flippant, by shortening.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently a euphemism for fuck.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of earlier fillip, from Middle English filippen ("to make a signal or sound with thumb and right forefinger, snap the fingers"), an attenuated variation of Middle English flappen ("to flap, clap, slap, strike"). Cognate with Dutch flappen ("to flap"), German flappen ("to flap").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Something you don't give.

    October 12, 2007

  • A 1960s female hairstyle that featured shoulder length, essentially straight, blunt cut hair that turned up dramatically and uniformly on the ends. Sometimes worn with a middle or side part and at other times combed back and held off the forehead with a hair band.

    February 1, 2008

  • I boarded her once at midnight somewhere off the Patagonian coast, and drank good flip down in the forecastle.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 101

    July 29, 2008

  • "There is a life-size picture of a dogcow conveniently located in the Finder. Look under 'Page Setup...' Now look under 'Options.' Like any talented dog, it can do flips. Like any talented cow, it can do precision bitmap alignment."

    - from Apple Tech Note #31

    November 7, 2008