"flub" meaning in English

See flub in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /flʌb/ Audio: en-us-flub.ogg [US] Forms: flubs [plural]
Rhymes: -ʌb Etymology: Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953. Etymology templates: {{m|en|fluff}} fluff, {{m|en|flop}} flop Head templates: {{en-noun}} flub (plural flubs)
  1. (informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action. Tags: informal Translations (mistake): metida de pata [Mexico, feminine] (Spanish), tabbe [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-flub-en-noun-vMhd8lfm

Verb

IPA: /flʌb/ Audio: en-us-flub.ogg [US] Forms: flubs [present, singular, third-person], flubbing [participle, present], flubbed [participle, past], flubbed [past]
Rhymes: -ʌb Etymology: Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953. Etymology templates: {{m|en|fluff}} fluff, {{m|en|flop}} flop Head templates: {{en-verb}} flub (third-person singular simple present flubs, present participle flubbing, simple past and past participle flubbed)
  1. (transitive) To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action. Tags: transitive Related terms: flub up Translations (to err): meter la pata [Mexico] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-flub-en-verb-usDgkG~G Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 73

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for flub meaning in English (5.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fluff"
      },
      "expansion": "fluff",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flop"
      },
      "expansion": "flop",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "flubs",
      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1962 November 6, Richard Nixon, “Gentlemen, this is my last press conference”, 2008, Rick Perlstein (editor), Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, page 111,\nI made a talk on television, a talk in which I made a flub—one of the few that I make, not because I′m so good on television but because I′ve been doing it a long time. I made a flub in which I said I was running for governor of the United States."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Garry Marshall, Lori Marshall, Wake Me When It′s Funny: How to Break into Show Business and Stay, page 280",
          "text": "A flub can be a slight cinematic slip-up or a major gaffe.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, John Sheirer, Shut Up and Speak!: Essential Guidelines for Public Speaking in School, Work, and Life, page 56",
          "text": "The pressure public speaking puts on a person will occasionally cause these little flubs, so don′t panic when they happen to you.\nThe worst way to deal with a flub is to panic and make a big deal out of it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An error; a mistake in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "id": "en-flub-en-noun-vMhd8lfm",
      "links": [
        [
          "error",
          "error"
        ],
        [
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        ],
        [
          "perform",
          "perform"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "mistake",
          "tags": [
            "Mexico",
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "metida de pata"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "mistake",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "tabbe"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/flʌb/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌb"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-flub.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg/En-us-flub.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flub"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fluff"
      },
      "expansion": "fluff",
      "name": "m"
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flop"
      },
      "expansion": "flop",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "flubs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "flubbing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "flubbed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "flubbed",
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        "past"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Trevor Pearson, Living Strictly fore! Pleasure, pages 88–89",
          "text": "‘Stage fright? So? What are you babbling ′bout? You′re mad as a snake!’\n‘Ever since I was a kid. I was in the Christmas Pageant one year and flubbed my line.’\n‘What was your line?’\n‘I told you I flubbed it!’ he mouthed these words hysterically.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, D. L. White, Acting For Film And Television, page 37",
          "text": "The actor that detained her had one line in that particular scene and flubbed it. And then flubbed it again...and again. And again, all the while assuring the director and the crew that he ‘knew his lines’ and then flubbed them again.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Ric Meyers, Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book, page 129",
          "text": "But even after the film ended, Jackie left his audience happy by including outtakes during the end credits — but not outtakes of flubbed lines (as in Cannonball Run) ... outtakes of flubbed stunts (including some painful shots of the bar room brawl and clock-tower fall that go horribly wrong)!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "id": "en-flub-en-verb-usDgkG~G",
      "links": [
        [
          "goof",
          "goof"
        ],
        [
          "fumble",
          "fumble"
        ],
        [
          "err",
          "err"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "flub up"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to err",
          "tags": [
            "Mexico"
          ],
          "word": "meter la pata"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/flʌb/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌb"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-flub.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg/En-us-flub.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  ],
  "word": "flub"
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{
  "categories": [
    "English 1-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌb",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌb/1 syllable"
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "flop"
      },
      "expansion": "flop",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "flubs",
      "tags": [
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  "senses": [
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1962 November 6, Richard Nixon, “Gentlemen, this is my last press conference”, 2008, Rick Perlstein (editor), Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, page 111,\nI made a talk on television, a talk in which I made a flub—one of the few that I make, not because I′m so good on television but because I′ve been doing it a long time. I made a flub in which I said I was running for governor of the United States."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Garry Marshall, Lori Marshall, Wake Me When It′s Funny: How to Break into Show Business and Stay, page 280",
          "text": "A flub can be a slight cinematic slip-up or a major gaffe.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, John Sheirer, Shut Up and Speak!: Essential Guidelines for Public Speaking in School, Work, and Life, page 56",
          "text": "The pressure public speaking puts on a person will occasionally cause these little flubs, so don′t panic when they happen to you.\nThe worst way to deal with a flub is to panic and make a big deal out of it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An error; a mistake in the performance of an action."
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/flʌb/"
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      "audio": "en-us-flub.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "mistake",
      "tags": [
        "Mexico",
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "metida de pata"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "mistake",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "tabbe"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flub"
}

{
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌb",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌb/1 syllable"
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        "1": "en",
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  "etymology_text": "Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "flubs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "flub up"
    }
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Trevor Pearson, Living Strictly fore! Pleasure, pages 88–89",
          "text": "‘Stage fright? So? What are you babbling ′bout? You′re mad as a snake!’\n‘Ever since I was a kid. I was in the Christmas Pageant one year and flubbed my line.’\n‘What was your line?’\n‘I told you I flubbed it!’ he mouthed these words hysterically.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, D. L. White, Acting For Film And Television, page 37",
          "text": "The actor that detained her had one line in that particular scene and flubbed it. And then flubbed it again...and again. And again, all the while assuring the director and the crew that he ‘knew his lines’ and then flubbed them again.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Ric Meyers, Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book, page 129",
          "text": "But even after the film ended, Jackie left his audience happy by including outtakes during the end credits — but not outtakes of flubbed lines (as in Cannonball Run) ... outtakes of flubbed stunts (including some painful shots of the bar room brawl and clock-tower fall that go horribly wrong)!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "goof",
          "goof"
        ],
        [
          "fumble",
          "fumble"
        ],
        [
          "err",
          "err"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
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    {
      "ipa": "/flʌb/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌb"
    },
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      "audio": "en-us-flub.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg/En-us-flub.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-us-flub.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to err",
      "tags": [
        "Mexico"
      ],
      "word": "meter la pata"
    }
  ],
  "word": "flub"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.