flop sweat

noun

Sweat due to nervousness, especially fear of failure.

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Meanings

nounflop sweat (usually uncountable, plural flop sweats)

plural flop sweats · alternative flopsweat

  1. slanguncountableusuallySweat due to nervousness, especially fear of failure.

    Billy Vine, covered with flop sweat, started so-so, but in a few minutes he had them.

    15 March 1947, Bill Smith, "Night Club Reviews", Billboard page 36
  2. slanguncountableusuallyPanic or anxiety about possible failure.

    This is the point very often where panic sets in. In theatre jargon, we call it "flop sweat."

    1979, Ken Waissman, Maxine Fox, “Broadway: A sound heard around the world”, in Beyond Media, →ISBN, page 264

Origin

From flop + sweat.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

flop sweat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flop%20sweat

MLA

“flop sweat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flop%20sweat. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “flop sweat,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flop%20sweat.

Source: flop sweat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.