flip-flop

Pluralflip-flops

Formsflip-flops, flip-flopping, flip-flopped

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A sandal with a flat rubber sole held on by a thong that passes between the toes and around the sides of the foot.

   He bought a cheap pair of flip-flops for the beach vacation.

   Each flip-flop had worn thin after a whole summer of daily use.

   Similarthong

   Note

   The sandal's own noise gives it its name. The word is onomatopoeic, most probably imitating the sound produced when someone walks in them. The shoe is usually spoken of in pairs, as in a pair of flip-flops, though a single one is a flip-flop on its own. The word serves speakers in both the US and the UK.

2. 2
   verbidiomatictransitive or intransitive

   To swing repeatedly back and forth between directly opposite opinions, ideas, or decisions.

   Like a weathervane that turns to point whichever way the wind happens to blow.

   The committee flip-flopped its recommendation after pressure from both sides.

   He tends to flip-flop whenever new polls come out.

   Similarvacillate

   Note

   The verb doubles its p in flip-flopped and flip-flopping. It works without an object (he flip-flops on taxes) or with one (the committee flip-flopped its recommendation). Vacillate is the more formal near-synonym and stresses wavering. U-turn suggests a single reversal, while flip-flop implies swinging back and forth more than once.

3. 3
   nounUScountable

   A reversal of opinion, especially one of several made by a public figure who repeatedly changes a stated position.

   The governor's flip-flop on the pipeline dominated the evening news.

   Reporters traced each flip-flop he had made since taking office.

   SimilarU-turn, reversal, about-face, volte-face

   Note

   American political talk took the swap and aimed it at opinions. The word is a charge rather than a description, usually made by opponents, and it implies inconsistency or opportunism. The noun counts each instance of what the verb describes: a politician flip-flops, and is then accused of a flip-flop.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A switch in which two things trade positions; an inversion or swap.

   The schedule did a flip-flop, moving the morning class to the evening slot.

   A surprise flip-flop sent the front-runner to the back of the line.

   Similarreversal, switch, swap, inversion

   Note

   Here the word is a plain noun of exchange: players in a formation can keep every assignment except for the flip-flop of positions. It also sits before another noun as a modifier, as in a flip-flop attitude toward two options. That wavering use points the way to the reversal of opinion, where the swap is between positions someone holds.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An acrobatic somersault in which the body turns heels over head.

   The acrobat sprang into a flip-flop and landed squarely on the mat.

   She practiced the flip-flop for weeks before adding it to her floor routine.

   Similarsomersault, flip

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The slapping sound made by a steady, regular footfall.

   A faint flip-flop announced the nurse's approach long before she appeared.

   The flip-flop of wet feet trailed across the locker-room tiles.

   Similarpatter, slap

   Note

   Here the word is nearly pure sound: the slap of feet falling in steady rhythm. It is the same noise that most probably named the rubber sandal, but it can describe any regular footfall, bare or shod. The paired syllables mimic one step and then the next.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   An electronic switching circuit with two stable states, used to store one bit of information by holding whichever state a trigger sets.

   Like a coin resting heads-up or tails-up, staying put until a flick turns it over.

   Engineers wired several flip-flops together to build a small memory register.

   A clock pulse tells the flip-flop when to change state.

   Note

   Engineers also call it a bistable, and the name fits the toggle: the circuit holds one state until a trigger flips it to the other. Strictly, the term also covers a circuit with one stable and one unstable state, which flips and then returns by itself. George Dyson's Turing's Cathedral (2012) describes ten two-state flip-flops wired into a ten-stage ring counter for each decimal digit of an accumulator.

8. 8
   nounslangUScountable

   A round trip out to a destination and back, especially one made by a long-haul truck driver.

   He squeezed in a flip-flop to the warehouse before his hours ran out.

   The dispatcher scheduled a flip-flop to the port and back the same day.

   Note

   Truckers' slang for the leg home. Its best-known appearance is the sign-off of C. W. McCall's "Convoy" (1975), where the drivers promise to meet again on the way back. Outside trucking talk it reads as slang, so it suits casual speech among drivers or writing that sets out to evoke the road.

9. 9
   nounslangderogatoryoffensivecountable

   A highly offensive slur for a person from the Middle East or a Muslim country, especially Afghanistan.

   He was thrown out of the bar for calling the waiter a flip-flop.

   The report documented soldiers dehumanizing villagers by branding them flip-flops.

   Note

   A slur, never a neutral label. It exists to insult and demean, and the only safe way to handle it is at arm's length: quoted in reporting, testimony or scholarship about how it has been used. Because it shares its spelling with the harmless senses of the word, context is what flags it. Aimed at a person, it will be heard as an insult.

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