- 1（立場）變來變去、急轉彎；台灣新聞也說「立場反覆」（口語、常帶批評，尤其說政治人物）
To flip-flop is to change your opinion, and often to change it again — to face one way, then the other. We use it most about people in public, especially politicians: yes in March, no in June. It is informal and usually . The speaker is not praising a careful new thought; they are saying you cannot trust this stand. You can also use it as a noun: “another flip-flop on tax.” Though actually, the same words name the open shoes that slap your heel as you walk. That sound — flip, flop — is probably where the word was born: it copies the noise. The opinion meaning takes the picture of something that slaps over and back. (In machines, a flip-flop is a different thing again, a tiny on-off switch; that is not this sense.) If someone learns and honestly changes once, “they changed their mind” is fairer than flip-flop.
From the word’s history
Onomatopoeic; most probably imitating the sound made when walking in them.
擬聲詞，可能是模仿穿著它走路時的啪嗒聲。
組成擬聲。多半是在模仿穿這種拖鞋走路時啪嗒啪嗒的聲音；後來才用來形容意見翻過來又翻過去。
原始詞典資料9 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
flip-flopnoun/ˈflɪpˌflɒp/
- 1
A sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.
- the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents
- 2
A change of places; an inversion or swap.
- On the break for strong left, everything remains the same, except for the flip-flop of positions.
- BR's flip-flop attitude towards the two options can be observed in comments made by the BR chairman in September 1967, which were interpreted as meaning that the facts now have to be "adjusted" to prove the electrification case.
- 3
A change of places; an inversion or swap.
- 4
businesscomputingelectrical-engineeringA bistable; an electronic switching circuit that has either two stable states (switching between them in response to a trigger) or a stable and an unstable state (switching from one to the other and back again in response to a trigger), and which is thereby capable of serving as one bit of memory.
- Ten two-state flip-flops […] were formed into ten-stage ring counters representing each decimal digit in the ten-digit accumulators […]
- 5
The sound of a regular footfall.
- 6
A somersault.
- 7
slangA return trip.
- We'll catch you on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone, 'bye, 'bye.
- 8
offensivederogatoryslangA person or inhabitant of the Middle East, or a Muslim nation, particularly Afghanistan.
flip-flopverb/ˈflɪpˌflɒp/
- 1
To alternate back and forth between directly opposite opinions, ideas, or decisions.
- Trump used to be able to hold the factions together, Taylor said, but these tensions – plus Trump’s flip-flopping about the Epstein files – have collapsed the coalition.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。