1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London, Act I., Sc. 2. That down came I flop o’ my feace all along in the channel.
1860. Punch, v. 38, p. 255. ’Twixt two stools, flop, he let me drop, The fall it was my murther.
1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. vi. ‘She’ll roll down, papa, and come flop.’
To flop over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn heavily; hence (in America), to make a sudden change of sides, association, or allegiance.
Flop-Up, subs. (American).—A day’s tramp, as opposed to a sot-down = half a day’s travel.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 15 Sept. ‘Stranger, did ye lope it?’ (come on foot). ‘Yes.’ ‘A mile or a sot down?’ ‘More’n that. About a dozen flop-ups.’
Flop-up-time = Bedtime.
[Flop, too, is something of a vocable of all-work. Thus to flop in = (venery) to effect intromission; to flop round = to loaf; to dangle; to flop a judy = to lay out, or ‘spread’ (q.v.), a girl; to do a flop = (colloquial) to sit, or to fall, down, and (venery) to lie down to a man; to flop out = to leave the water noisily and awkwardly; belly-flopping = belly-bumping, coition; a flop in the gills = a smack in the mouth.]
Florence, subs. (old)—‘A wench that has been touzed and ruffled.’
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, and (1785) Grose, s.v.