Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💦 A flat dive 💥 A big failure
belly flop

belly flop

4.4
An embarrassing failure of a plan, event, or show
  • noun
  • /ˈbɛli flɑp/
  • Informal
translation icon : fracaso estrepitoso
  • His attempt to impress the audience with an elaborate speech ended in a belly flop, leaving everyone in awkward silence.

Examples

  • After months of preparation, the charity event turned into a belly flop due to poor promotion.

  • The new restaurant's opening was a complete belly flop, as hardly anyone showed up on the first night.

  • You brought culture to the belly flop contest.

Synonyms

botch
vsbelly flop
3 7.6

An embarrassing mistake that happens because of bad or careless work

describes a failure of a plan or performance rather than a single mistake
flopper
vsbelly flop
  • Offensive
1 8.2

Something that fails completely

is an embarrassing or spectacular failure of a plan event or performance

Antonyms

success
∞ 1.0

Getting what you want after working hard

hit
465 1.3

Something very popular and successful, like a song or show

How Successful

hit
465 1.3
belly flop
  • Informal
4.4
failure
557 1.3

Surface Forms

belly flop singular
belly flops plural

Morphology

belly + flop

While 'flop' clearly denotes a failure and a learner who knows that word could infer the MWE refers to some kind of failure, the role of 'belly' is not compositionally predictable — it evokes a physical, embarrassing landing and a metaphorical intensifier that requires cultural/figurative knowledge. Because the meaning is partly inferable from 'flop' but depends on a non-literal image to convey 'embarrassing/spectacular failure', it is best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

Belly flop used the same loud, embarrassing splash as a picture for failure: when a dive goes wrong it looks obvious and shameful. So people also call a very bad, public mistake a belly flop, meaning 'a complete and embarrassing failure'.