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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2012-10-10 18:45:45

larrybob
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-12-26
Posts: 96

flunked << flubbed

Ran across this one in the tutorial in the first citation. “Flunked” and “flubbed” are both forms of failure, but one is academic and the other is frequently spoken. I think you could apply either one to failing a test, though. And “fluffed” can also be used more-or-less interchangeably with “flubbed.”

Audacity Tutorial: “Actors might have flunked their lines and picking up shooting prior to the mistake might be chosen or the entire sequence reshot.”

News story comment: “Look at how he flunked the oath of office and his greatest gaffe, the US economy.”

I don’t quite understand its application in a sports context – are the lines that a sportsman flunks the ones on the field? It looks like fluffed his lines is used pretty frequently in rugby stories, but is it just metaphoric?

Rugby news story: “There have been times when he has flunked his lines, tried to run from the back only to dither and get caught in no-man’s land.”

Rugby story comment: “Hook admits that he flunked his lines in the semi-final.”

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#2 2012-10-11 17:42:44

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: flunked << flubbed

Is that fuzz in the lexical ether surrounding the word flub a field announcing a fuzzy spot? If we had time I think we could turn up lots of fuzziness between flunk, flub, fluff, flubber, flab, maybe flummox. Who knows. Fuzz itself?

Last edited by David Bird (2012-10-12 05:56:08)

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