U.S. [f. FLUNK v. or sb. + -Y.]. One who ‘flunks’ or ‘comes to grief’; in College slang, one who fails in an examination: in Stock Exchange language, an ignorant person who dabbles in financial speculation.
1841. F. Jackson, A Week in Wall Street, 90–1. He [a broker who had met with heavy losses] muttered to himself ‘I’m in a bear-trap—this won’t do. The dogs will ‘come over’ me. I shall be mulct in a loss. But I’ve got time—I’ll turn the scale, I’ll help the bulls, operate for a rise, and draw in the flunkies.’
1855. Yale Lit. Mag. (Farmer), Nov., XX. 76, ‘The College Ghost.’
| The ungrateful wretch has cast me | |
| Forth to wander in the gloom. | |
| I bore him safe through Horace, | |
| Saved him from the flunkey’s doom. |
