flunk
noun
Flunk — the informal, blunt word for failing a course or exam outright
Definition
Failure to reach a minimum required performance; "his failing the course led to his disqualification"; "he got two flunks on his report"
In depth
Flunk, like failing, names the failure to reach a minimum required performance, but the word carries a distinctly informal, colloquial register, almost exclusively used in academic contexts. Its bluntness gives it a certain conversational immediacy that the more formal 'failing' lacks, often used self-deprecatingly or with rueful humor.
Origin
The word's origin is uncertain, likely emerging from nineteenth-century American college slang, possibly related to 'flinch' or other dialect terms suggesting a sudden collapse or failure of nerve. Its enduring informality reflects its origin in student speech rather than formal academic or institutional language, a register it has never fully shed even after more than a century of use.
Usage examples
"He flunked the exam spectacularly, a fact he now tells as a self-deprecating joke at dinner parties."
"Flunking out of the program, though devastating at the time, ultimately redirected her toward a career she came to love."
"Half the class seemed certain to flunk, judging by the uneasy silence that followed the professor's question."
How to use it
Flunk is informal, conversational vocabulary almost exclusively used in academic contexts, well suited to casual narrative, dialogue, and memoir, but inappropriate for formal evaluative or institutional writing, where 'failing' is the expected term.
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