Standard Lemma guide

flub

noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /flʌb/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Ireland, Northern-England: /flʊb/
  • rhymes with -ʌb

1

noun

Meaning 1

An error; a mistake in the performance of an action.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, US, informal

Examples

  • 1962 November 6, Richard Nixon, “Gentlemen, this is my last press conference”, 2008, Rick Perlstein (editor), Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, page 111, I 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A fold of fat.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, US, slang

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, US, informal, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

an embarrassing mistake

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: blunder, blooper, bloomer, bungle, pratfall, foul-up, fuckup, botch, boner, boo-boo

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: mistake, error, fault

Narrower terms: bobble, snafu, spectacle, bull, fumble, muff, fluff, faux pas, gaffe, solecism, slip, gaucherie, howler, clanger, trip, trip-up, stumble, misstep

5

verb

Meaning 5

make a mess of, destroy or ruin

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • I botched the dinner and we had to eat out
  • the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fail, go wrong, miscarry

History

Etymology

Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. First appeared in the US as a verb c. 1924, and as a noun c. 1953.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Spanish: metida de pata — mistake
  • Swedish: tabbe — mistake
  • Spanish: meter la pata — to err