flip one's lid
flip one's lid verb: to become explosively angry, to lose one's temper.
Verb
flip one's lid (third-person singular simple present flips one's lid, present participle flipping one's lid, simple past and past participle flipped one's lid)
- To become explosively angry, to lose one's temper.
- Wait, you'll see. Three hours on a night like this is enough to make you flip your lid.1948, Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead, New York; Toronto: Rinehart & Company, page 113
- Drag him out your window / Dragging out the dead / Singing "I miss you" / Snakes and ladders / Flip the lid2003, Radiohead, “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Thom Yorke
- Synonyms:
- flip out, flip one's wig, blow one's top, blow a gasket
Synonyms of flip one's lid
Forms of flip one's lid
| third-person singular present | flips one's lid |
|---|---|
| present participle | flipping one's lid |
| past participle | flipped one's lid |
| past | flipped one's lid |
| alternative form | flip the lid |
Origin of flip one's lid
Originally an Americanism; from the analogy of a boiling pot explosively popping off its lid due to built-up internal pressure.
Questions about flip one's lid
- What does flip one's lid mean?
- Flip one's lid means to become explosively angry, to lose one's temper.
- What part of speech is flip one's lid?
- Flip one's lid is a verb.
- What is the past tense of flip one's lid?
- The past tense of flip one's lid is flipped one's lid.
Words near flip one's lid in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flip one's lid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-flip one's lid.ogg.
Cite this entry: “flip one's lid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flip_one%27s_lid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.