flip out

verb

flipped out; flipping out; flips out

intransitive verb

informal

: to lose one's reason or composure

She's going to flip out when she sees the great present I got her!

"We were flipping out [from worry] and crying," Yvonne White said. "It was just getting worse and worse."

—Sydney Page

especially : to become very angry

… he flipped out on the server when they messed up his wife's order.

—Ajani Bazile

transitive verb

informal

: to cause (someone) to lose reason or composure

But it wasn't until he saw a homemade e-bike in the back of a neighbor's pickup truck about five years ago that he truly fell in love. "It flipped me out. It looked like a tiny motorcycle," [Andrew] Willner said.

—Lissa Harris

"I fell asleep with my makeup on, and when I woke up, my eyes were swollen shut from an allergic reaction to the silver paint. I couldn't see a thing, and it flipped me out."

—Ace Frehley

Examples of flip out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It was borne from her struggles with cystic acne, something she’s dealt with since childhood, and the search for products that won’t make her skin flip out. —Julia Sullivan, SELF, 22 Jan. 2025

Homelander, as expected, flips out, accusing Starlight of a betrayal due to her romantic entanglement with Hughie. —Gord Magill, Newsweek, 22 Dec. 2024

In short: After killing Pedro Hernandez, Gibbs flipped out, earning him an eviction. —Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 16 Dec. 2024

Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edges, and immediately flip out onto a cutting board. —Cathy Thomas, Orange County Register, 25 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1959, in the meaning defined at transitive sense