flunk
verb /flʌŋk/
/flʌŋk/
(informal, especially North American English)Verb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they flunk | /flʌŋk/ /flʌŋk/ |
| he / she / it flunks | /flʌŋks/ /flʌŋks/ |
| past simple flunked | /flʌŋkt/ /flʌŋkt/ |
| past participle flunked | /flʌŋkt/ /flʌŋkt/ |
| -ing form flunking | /ˈflʌŋkɪŋ/ /ˈflʌŋkɪŋ/ |
- [transitive, intransitive] flunk (something) to fail an exam, a test or a course
- I flunked math in second grade.
Extra ExamplesTopics Difficulty and failurec2, Educationc2- He'd flunked every exam he'd ever sat.
- The students who are worried usually aren't the ones who will flunk.
- [transitive] flunk somebody to make somebody fail an exam, a test, or a course by giving them a low mark
- She's flunked 13 of the 18 students.
Word Originearly 19th cent. (in the general sense ‘back down, fail utterly’; originally US): perhaps related to funk ‘state of fear or panic’ or to US flink ‘be a coward’, perhaps a variant of flinch.