flub

American  

[fluhb] / flʌb /

verb (used with or without object)

flubbed, flubbing

1. to perform poorly; blunder; bungle.

   He flubbed the last shot and lost the match.

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noun

1. a blunder.

flub British  

/ flʌb /

noun

1. an embarrassing mistake or blunder

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verb

1. (intr) to blunder or make an embarrassing mistake

Other Word Forms

• flubber
  noun

Etymology

Origin of flub

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25; origin uncertain

Explanation

To flub something is to really mess it up. When a movie actor flubs his lines, the scene can be filmed again. But, if he's a stage actor, there's no way to fix the mistake. Even a star basketball player flubs an easy layup sometimes, and the very best students occasionally flub a quiz. The mistake or blunder itself can also be called a flub: "The concert was terrible, full of flubs." The word's been around since the 1920's, possibly influenced by words like "fluff" and "flop," and definitely coined in the United States.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flub flubbed flubbing

There is a lot of faith in last year’s expansion club, but the potential draft-day flub of trading away Flau’jae Johnson has shaken some of that.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026

Plus, Cher’s onstage flub, Bad Bunny’s strong words for ICE and Justin Bieber’s stripped-down performance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

The Tony Award winner, whose name was infamously mangled by John Travolta during the 2014 Oscars telecast, is laughing at the infamous flub a decade later.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2024

“When I see somebody make a flub on TV, I’m really not all that concerned,” said well-known aging researcher S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 10, 2024

Second, the two elements being compared should be grammatically and semantically parallel, a requirement that’s easy to flub when the first is complex.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

I would have won with my cautious approach because Grok flubbed it, too.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

From abandoned panic rooms to flubbed Ghostface executions, the characters make so many dumb choices that eventually we’re convinced that Williamson is frustrating us by design.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026

I was grateful for Richard when I began doing another exercise video on repeat, one led by a frigid ballerina who never flubbed or joked.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2024

Alicia Keys had just appeared, in a sequined red jumpsuit and matching encrusted gown, and rather gratuitously flubbed the opening note of her hit piano ballad “If I Ain’t Got You.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024

Incredibly, I flubbed only six or seven lines.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

The Minion is a movie star flubbing that leap.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

When he ran for prime minister last year, there were real questions about whether he would take to the political side of the job, and he stumbled at times, flubbing his French, for instance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

The reasoning is straightforward: Why take a risk of legitimizing his rivals, or becoming a target on stage, or just flubbing, when you’re already in a category of your own?

From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2023

After flubbing both the signature and the technical, Abbi has to pull it out for the showstopper.

From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2023

But when a man flubbed a job, and kept on flubbing it, then Mr. Henry Grenoble stepped in and carried out his own job—general managing.

From Sense from Thought Divide by Dongen, H. R. van