Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To fail, especially in a course or an examination.
  • intransitive verb To fail (an examination or course).
  • intransitive verb To give a failing grade to (a student).
  • intransitive verb To fail (a drug test, as for a performance enhancing substance).
  • noun A failure.
  • noun A failing grade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fail or give up; break down or back down, as from incompetence or fear: often with out: as, to flunk in a school recitation or examination; to flunk out from a contest.
  • To cause to fail, as in a recitation or an examination.
  • noun A failure or back-down; in colleges, a complete failure in a recitation or an examination.

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

  • noun College cant, U.S., College cant, U.S., U.S. A failure or backing out.
  • transitive verb Colloq. U.S. To fail in; to fail to pass (a test, examination, or course of study).
  • transitive verb To shirk, as a task or duty.
  • intransitive verb To fail, as on a lesson; to back out, as from an undertaking, through fear.

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

  • verb US, transitive, intransitive Of a student, to fail a class; to not pass.
  • verb US, transitive Of a teacher, to deny a student a passing grade.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fail to get a passing grade
  • noun failure to reach a minimum required performance

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of funk, or perhaps a blend of flinch and funk.

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Examples

  • And so we, lowly flunk from the salt mines, introduced our boss's boss (and others) to Mr Sinha.

    Archive 2007-10-01 2007

  • a "greasy grind" -- and yet fail of prominence; and one could fail to pass -- "flunk" -- and yet climb to the pinnacle of prominence.

    Missy Dana Gatlin

  • Or if you like the cool, dispassionate analysis, I'd recommend the Union of Concerned Scientists or the well-respected journalist Eric Pooley's take on how the authors -- who he says are friends of his -- "flunk" the science.

    Andrew Winston: Missing the SuperFreaking Point (and Ignoring the Business Case for Green) 2009

  • Eric Pooley's take on how the authors -- who he says are friends of his -- "flunk" the science.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

  • I'd been dropping "flunk" in tests to note that they weren't implemented yet, but that can get confusing pretty quickly.

    almost effortless 2009

  • I don't think it's possible "flunk" the tmatt trio, as you say.

    GetReligion 2009

  • Supposedly, there is no way to "flunk" a stress test.

    Forbes.com: News Roy C. Smith and Ingo Walter 2009

  • Maybe volunteers might even "flunk" the fostering program -- as Laibe once did -- and decide to adopt, she said.

    Daytona Beach News-Journal Online 2009

  • Well, I suppose totally incoherent and / or self-contradictory answers might cause the person to "flunk" in a certain way, but I don't think the tmatt trio is some tool to enforce orthodoxy.

    GetReligion 2009

  • I don't think it's possible "flunk" the tmatt trio, as you say.

    GetReligion 2009

Comments

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