flunk out

present singular third person flunks out · participle present flunking out · participle past flunked out · past flunked out

1. idiomaticTo fail to finish school, or a given subject, program or course, due to academic shortcomings; i.e., to have too many flunking or failing grades (marks).

   He flunked out of high school as a youth, but finished school later in life.

2. idiomatic(of an educator or institution) To impose failing grades on (a student), often requiring a retaking of the course or academic year.

   They could simply have replied, "No, we're way too square. And until you do come up with an answer, stick to the syllabus so that we don't have to flunk out your mixed-up students when we get them next quarter."

   1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN