Word: flunk
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...natives were eager to learn, but not always easy to teach. At first, he found, students from one island would refuse to mingle with those from another. Also, they had a horror of losing face: a teacher scarcely dared flunk students lest they refuse ever to go home again. Even some of O'Brian's alumni were troublesome. A few got back to their villages and refused to do any work; some even tried to overrule their chiefs. Others flouted ancient taboos in their parents' faces...
Failures in a few minor subjects will no longer flunk a student out of Princeton. Instead he will be judged on his over-all average...
...most important reason for this awkardness is English A's system of sectioning its students. It screens incoming Freshmen with a difficult and tricky Anticipatory Examinations, then herds the 900-old students who flunk the test into a formidable collection of sections, grouped without a glance towards individual writing skills. The result, as '52 already knows, is pretty unfortunate. Section men find themselves teaching down to their slower students, while better writers are held back and end up learning little...
Andrews (flustered): "I think I would flunk that question...
...enjoyed your blast against proctoring more than we who operate that benevolent system, for you emphasize what we've been trying to din into our erudite hatchet-men since the year John Harvard got his famous flunk in History...