Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural flop·hous·es [flop-hou-ziz] /ˈflɒpˌhaʊ zɪz/.
- a cheap, run-down hotel or rooming house.
noun
- US and Canadian slang a cheap lodging house, esp one used by trampsAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): dosshouse
“cheap hotel,” hobo slang, 1904, probably related to slang flop (v.) “lie down for sleep” (1907); see flop (v.) + house (n.).
In one of [Cincinnati’s] slum districts stands the Silver Moon, a “flop house” (i.e., a house where the occupants are “flopped” out of their hanging bunks by letting down the ropes) …. [“McClure’s” magazine, November 1904]
(But this explanation is not found in other early references.)