flip-flop

plural flip-flops · alternative flip flop · alternative flipflop

1. UKUSA sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.First known use 20th c.

   the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents

   30 August 2004, The New Yorker,, page 38

   Synonyms: flippy-flop, go-ahead, jandal, thong, plugger, slop, chancla, zori

2. idiomaticA change of places; an inversion or swap.

   On the break for strong left, everything remains the same, except for the flip-flop of positions.

   1964, Scholastic Coach, volume 34, page 8

   1 more example

   BR's flip-flop attitude towards the two options can be observed in comments made by the BR chairman in September 1967, which were interpreted as meaning that the facts now have to be "adjusted" to prove the electrification case.

   2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 61

   1. USidiomaticAn instance of flip-flopping, of repeatedly changing one's stated opinion about a matter.First known use 19th c.
3. businessA bistable; an electronic switching circuit that has either two stable states (switching between them in response to a trigger) or a stable and an unstable state (switching from one to the other and back again in response to a trigger), and which is thereby capable of serving as one bit of memory.First known use 20th c.

   Ten two-state flip-flops […] were formed into ten-stage ring counters representing each decimal digit in the ten-digit accumulators […]

   2012, George Dyson, Turing's Cathedral, Penguin, published 2013, page 72

4. The sound of a regular footfall.
5. A somersault.First known use 19th c.
6. USslangtruck drivingA return trip.

   We'll catch you on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone, 'bye, 'bye.

   1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall

7. derogatoryoffensiveslangA person or inhabitant of the Middle East, or a Muslim nation, particularly Afghanistan.

present singular third person flip-flops · participle present flip-flopping · participle past flip-flopped · past flip-flopped · alternative flip flop · alternative flipflop

1. idiomaticintransitivetransitiveTo alternate back and forth between directly opposite opinions, ideas, or decisions.

   Trump used to be able to hold the factions together, Taylor said, but these tensions – plus Trump’s flip-flopping about the Epstein files – have collapsed the coalition.

   2026 June 27, J. Oliver Conroy, “The UFC match plot: how a far-right group tried to assassinate Trump at his own event”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: U-turn, vacillate