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 notpass . - 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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And so we, lowly flunk from the salt mines, introduced our boss's boss (and others) to Mr Sinha.
Archive 2007-10-01 2007
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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
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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
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Eric Pooley's take on how the authors -- who he says are friends of his -- "flunk" the science.
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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
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I don't think it's possible "flunk" the tmatt trio, as you say.
GetReligion 2009
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Supposedly, there is no way to "flunk" a stress test.
Forbes.com: News Roy C. Smith and Ingo Walter 2009
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Maybe volunteers might even "flunk" the fostering program -- as Laibe once did -- and decide to adopt, she said.
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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
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I don't think it's possible "flunk" the tmatt trio, as you say.
GetReligion 2009
Comments
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