flophouse

[ flop-hous ]

noun

, plural flop·hous·es [flop, -hou-ziz].

1. a cheap, run-down hotel or rooming house.

flophouse

/ ˈflɒpˌhaʊs /

noun

1. slang.
   a cheap lodging house, esp one used by tramps Also called (in Britain and certain other countries)dosshouse

Word History and Origins

Origin of flophouse¹

First recorded in 1890–95; flop + house

Example Sentences

They dress in clothing from the flophouse lost-and-found and are groomed with a hacksaw and gravel rake.

From The Daily Beast

In his hand is a Bloody Mary, and his eyelids hang down his face like two broken blinds in a flophouse.

From The Daily Beast

The theater job proves temporary, and after weeks of couch surfing McClear finds a bed at a flophouse called the Malibu Hotel.

From The Daily Beast

The walls were paper-thin, and he could hear all comings-and-goings at his end of the flophouse.

From The Daily Beast

The air of the city's cheapest flophouse was thick with the smells of harsh antiseptic and unwashed bodies.

From Project Gutenberg