Somehow I nearly floored the paper, and came out feeling much more comfortable than when I went in.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 12.
Our best classic had not time to floor the paper.—Ibid., p. 135.
FLOP. A correspondent from the University of Vermont writes: "Any 'cute' performance by which a man is sold [deceived] is a good flop, and, by a phrase borrowed from the ball ground, is 'rightly played.' The discomfited individual declares that they 'are all on a side,' and gives up, or 'rolls over' by giving his opponent 'gowdy.'" "A man writes cards during examination to 'feeze the profs'; said cards are 'gumming cards,' and he flops the examination if he gets a good mark by the means." One usually flops his marks by feigning sickness.
FLOP A TWENTY. At the University of Vermont, to flop a twenty is to make a perfect recitation, twenty being the maximum mark for scholarship.
FLUMMUX. Any failure is called a flummux. In some colleges the word is particularly applied to a poor recitation. At Williams College, a failure on the play-ground is called a flummux.
FLUMMUX. To fail; to recite badly. Mr. Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms, has the word flummix, to be overcome; to be frightened; to give way to.
Perhaps Parson Hyme didn't put it into Pokerville for two mortal hours; and perhaps Pokerville didn't mizzle, wince, and finally flummix right beneath him.—Field, Drama in Pokerville.
FLUNK. This word is used in some American colleges to denote a complete failure in recitation.
This, O, [signifying neither beginning nor end,] Tutor H—— said meant a perfect flunk.—The Yale Banger, Nov. 10, 1846.
I've made some twelve or fourteen flunks.—The Gallinipper,
Dec. 1849.