flunk /flʌŋk/ verb informal especially American EnglishAmE
1[intransitiveI, transitiveT]SEFAIL to fail a test 〔考试〕不及格,通不过(考试)
Tony flunked chemistry last semester.
托尼上学期化学考试不及格。
2[transitiveT]SEFAIL to give someone low marks on a test so that they fail it 给…打不及格分数SYN fail
She hadn’t done the work so I flunked her.
她没做作业,所以我给她打了不及格。
3flunk outphrasal verbphr v informal especially American EnglishAmESELEAVE A SCHOOL OR COLLEGEto be forced to leave a school or college because your work is not good enough 〔因学业不好而〕被迫退学
of
Ben flunked out of college.
本只得从大学退学。
Examples from the Corpus
flunk out• You either pass and get your degree or flunk out.• It was extremely humiliating to flunk out of law school like that.
flunk of• She found out when I flunked out of college.• It was, of course, extremely humiliating to flunk out of law school.• Leoflunked out of Yale in his junior year.
Examples from the Corpus
flunk• I flunked, and had to do the test again.• He thought he was going to flunkchemistry, but he got a D.• He was cutting school and flunking classes.• The first two years they basically just try to flunk everybody out.• Yesterday I took my driving test and flunked - for the sixth time.• She didn't do any of the work, so I flunked her.• My worstclass was math, and every time we took a test, I was certain I had completely flunked it.• Progressives have the chance to reshape globalinstitutions; they should not flunk it.• But it all went wrong when, some 15 years ago, he flunked math and didn't get into college.• Brant flunked out of college his first year.• The begin-ning of realtrouble was flunking the barexam and receiving, in turn, a reducedsalary from my firm.• She flunked the state bar exam four times before she finally passed.• Punitive and retroactive, our decision is to flunk the student, not the school.• Then Pasternak's office called him and told him that he had flunked the test.• And yet Simeon flunked virtually every exam, often by a mile.
Originflunk
(1800-1900) Perhaps from flinch + funk“to be afraid (of)”((18-21 centuries)); → FUNK2