belly flopped
Hit water flat
Belly flopped is the past tense of belly flop—to land flat on one's stomach, especially when diving into water.
The impact spreads across the torso rather than cutting cleanly through the surface: He belly flopped off the diving board and it stung for an hour.
Figuratively, to belly flop is to fail conspicuously: The movie belly flopped at the box office.
- plungeSudden steep descent
- high diveLeap from elevated board
- splashdownSpacecraft's water landing
- diveHeadfirst water entry
- wipeoutComplete, catastrophic failure
awkward · ungainly · swimming pool · clumsy · humiliation · landing · embarrassment · mishap · ungraceful · face first · mistake · smack · blunder · sting · crashing · diving · fall · water sports
success/failure (metaphorical)
belly floppednailed it
Succeeded completely, emphatically
triumphed · crushed it · stuck the landing · hit it big · soared