flip-flop, n.
(ˈflɪpflɒp)
[onomatopœic reduplication; cf. flip-flap adv., n. and a. and flop.]
a. The ‘flap’ of the ear. b. The sound of a regular footfall. nonce-uses.
| 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac., Informer (1860) 47 We will stop the mishapen hols widdowed of their flip-flops..least there..still he retaine also too much of the faculty of enterance. 1889 J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat 168 When he heard the regulation flip-flop approaching. |
c. A somersault. Cf. flip-flap n. 3 a. U.S.
| 1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant xvii. 245 And when a fellow's turning flip-flops up among the clouds, he's naturally going to have the farmers gaping at him. 1929 Liberty 30 Nov. 43/1 Turning hand-springs and flip-flops all over the sawdust covered floor. 1946 Gunnison (Colo.) News-Champion 2 May 1/2 The convertible Ford coupe..missed a narrow bridge..turned a flip-flop in the air and came to a stop right side up in waist-deep waters. 1969 New Yorker 12 Apr. 100/2 Every time Lind or any other astronaut opens his mouth, the entire space industry turns flip-flops. |
d. As advb.
| 1904 H. G. Wells Food of Gods ii. i. 145 She..passed, flip-flop, within three yards of them. |
e. Electronics. Either of two types of electronic switching circuit: (a) one that passes from a stable to an unstable state and back again in response to a triggering pulse; (b) one that has two stable states and makes a single transition from one to the other in response to a triggering pulse.
| 1935 Wireless Engineer XII. 606/2 The earliest accounts of the device, which is sometimes called the ‘flip-flop’, are by Eccles and Jordan. 1946 Math. Tables & other Aids to Computation II. 100 The basic electronic memory device of the ENIAC is the flip-flop or trigger. 1964 F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers ii. 27 If a pulse is supplied to the lowest flip-flop in the counter the number 1 will be registered. 1966 New Scientist 3 Nov. 242/3 The cell contains its own version of an electronic ‘flip-flop’ circuit, a two-tube circuit which is stable when either tube is conducting, but not when both are. 1971 New Scientist 11 Mar. 551/3 Flip-flops are widely used in computers. |
f. A plastic or rubber sandal consisting of a flat sole and straps. Also attrib.
| 1970 Observer 15 Mar. 6/3 Milligan has a beard and wears flip-flops with jeans. 1971 M. Polland Package to Spain xii. 152 ‘She had flip-flops with white daisies on the front of them.’ ‘Flip-flops?’.. ‘Sandals. Beach sandals all made of plastic.’ 1971 W. J. Burley Guilt Edged i. 18 She wore..blue jeans and flip-flop sandals. |
Hence flip-flop v. intr., to go, proceed, act, etc., with a flapping sound; also trans., to turn (something) over. So flip-flopping vbl. n.
| 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXX. 176/1, I could hear a vigorous flip-flopping going on beyond the weeds, and I knew the captive was a trout. 1924 W. Deeping Three Rooms xxxv. 313 He [sc. a person distempering a wall] grew quite jaunty and confident, flip-flopping with considerable dexterity. 1940 F. D. Davison in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 59 Wallabies flip-flopped out of your way as you rode. 1968 J. D. Watson Double Helix xxvi. 197 Both pairs could be flipflopped over and still have their glycosidic bonds facing in the same direction. |
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▸ orig. U.S. Polit. A change of mind or position on something; a reversal.
| 1890 Chicago Tribune 13 July 6/5 Mr. Ericksen's friends in the twenty-third executed a flip-flop, and..went over to Michael Francis in a body. 1917 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daily News 9 June 14/4 Cantrill executed an alert flip-flop today on the suffrage issue. 1940 D. L. Cohn Good Old Days Introd. p. xviii, Sears does a flip-flop and goes in for time-payment merchandising. 1983D. Trombulak in Overtime: Worker Writer Anthology (1990) 43 Denise has gone back to work... Randy stays home... Denise admits that the flip-flop in their lifestyle has helped her see things in a different light. 2006 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 20 July 23 [He] was implacably opposed to a referendum on the EU Constitution until it suited his political purposes to perform a flip-flop. |