different between flab vs flub

English

Etymology

Back-formation from flabby.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flæb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Noun

flab (usually uncountable, plural flabs)

1. (informal) Soft, loose flesh on a person's body; fat.

Synonyms

• spare tire (North America)
• spare tyre (United Kingdom)
• roll of fat

Translations

English

Etymology

Possibly suggested by fluff and flop. US; as verb from 1924, noun from 1953.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl?b/

Noun

flub (plural flubs)

1. (informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action.
   • 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.

   • 1997, Garry Marshall, Lori Marshall, Wake Me When It?s Funny: How to Break into Show Business and Stay, page 280,

     A flub can be a slight cinematic slip-up or a major gaffe.

   • The worst way to deal with a flub is to panic and make a big deal out of it.

Translations

Verb

flub (third-person singular simple present flubs, present participle flubbing, simple past and past participle flubbed)

1. (transitive) To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action.
   • 2003, Trevor Pearson, Living Strictly fore! Pleasure, pages 88-89,

     ‘Stage fright? So? What are you babbling ?bout? You?re mad as a snake!’

     ‘Ever since I was a kid. I was in the Christmas Pageant one year and flubbed my line.’

     ‘What was your line?’

     ‘I told you I flubbed it!’ he mouthed these words hysterically.

Translations

See also

• flub up
• flub artist

Anagrams

• BLUF