an awkward, usually unintentional dive in which the front of the body strikes the water horizontally, the abdomen or chest bearing the brunt of the impact.
a maneuver with a sled in which the sledder runs with the sled to gain momentum and jumps forward to land on top of the sled as it moves through the snow.
a failure; flop.
to do a belly flop, as in diving or sledding.
to land or throw oneself heavily down on one's belly.
so tired he just belly-flopped on the bed.
a dive into water in which the body lands horizontally
another name for belly landing
First recorded in 1890–95
First recorded in 1930–35
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In fact, they discovered, this particular sequence of movements — curl up, jump, finish with a belly flop — is not unusual among other worm-shaped organisms that jump, including caterpillars and fly larvae.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
Anyone who's ever done a belly flop into a swimming pool knows it ends with a blunt-sounding splat, a big splash and a searing red sting.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2023
In Switzerland, he was rescued by scuba divers who pulled him unconscious from a lake after a belly flop.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 24, 2023
San Francisco did a belly flop in rainy Chicago, 19-10.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
He smacked the ground face-first in the world’s sandiest belly flop.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
Foraging Mason bees belly-flop from bloom to bloom, gathering pollen all over their bodies.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2023
In Maine, there was a lake with mist rising off it in the mornings, the call of loons, a dock for Murphy to belly-flop off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2021
To watch Corey belly-flop through a variety of apertures cut into insulation boards is to relive a misspent youth, in under 60 seconds.
From The Guardian ● May 26, 2020
It was reminiscent of Nelson’s work at AOT: pushing boundaries past a lot of people’s comfort zones, and with the potential to belly-flop but in practice was awesome.
From Washington Post ● May 30, 2019
Actually, it was more like a crazed belly-flop, and all the air was sucked out of me as I hit the water at a funny angle.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
If you've ever belly-flopped into a pool, then you know: water can be surprisingly hard if you hit it at the wrong angle.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2023
On one particularly harrowing visit to hunt in Canada in 2015, Grant’s pilot safely belly-flopped a twin-engine plane after the landing gear and dashboard instruments failed.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2023
Instead, the Pac-12 farcically belly-flopped into an intended seven-game season.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 11, 2020
That’s tantamount to deploying an aircraft’s landing gear after it already has belly-flopped onto a runway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2020
The dog ran, belly-flopped, and swam right to Benji.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
During the “Hakuna Matata” number, Pumbaa isn’t happily belly-flopping into a lagoon, nor is Simba awkwardly trying to swing in after him.
From The Verge ● Jul. 11, 2019
“Do This Thing” ends with Kyle Selig, who plays Cady’s love interest, essentially belly-flopping directly in front of Ms. Simard.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2018
He aborted the Bulls’ second possession by belly-flopping onto the basketball as soon as Rose lost control for a steal.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2014
It’s a family of six chopping up a roadkill deer for dinner, belly-flopping in the mud, and—those with delicate constitutions may want to avert their eyes for this next part—farting in public.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2012
Later in the first period, Ovechkin nearly scored one of his YouTube-ready, "How did he do that?" goals, somehow managing to lift the puck past Lundqvist while belly-flopping onto the ice.
From Newsweek ● May 10, 2012
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
