To flip up, verb. phr. (American).—To spin a coin.
1879. New York Tribune, 4 Oct. The two great men could flip up to see which should have the second place.
Flip-Flap, subs. 1 (old).—A flighty creature.
1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend. 1. The light airy flip-flap, she kills him with her motions.
2. (popular). A step-dance; a cellar-flap (q.v.). Also (acrobats’); a kind of somersault, in which the performer throws himself over on his hands and feet alternately.
1727. Gay, Fables, ‘Two Monkies.’ The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round. With sommersets he shakes the ground.
1872. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There ain’t nothing you can’t do, Morty, from Shylock to a flip-flap. [[27]]
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. There were the clowns who danced, turned somersaults, flip-flaps, and contorted themselves.
3. (American). A kind of tea-cake.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The first evening I took tea with Mrs. Scrimmager. ‘It must be more than a mite lonely for you,’ she said, as we sat over her dough-nuts and flip-flaps.