Also 6 ? flym flawe. [One of the many onomatopœic reduplications expressive of contempt; cf. fidfad, skimble-skamble, whimwham. Possibly based on a Scandinavian word which may have existed in some Eng. dialects; cf. ON. flim a lampoon, flimska mockery, flimta to flout.]
A. sb.
1. A piece of nonsense or idle talk; a trifle, a conceit. Cf. FLAM sb.1 2.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 19.
| She can wynke on the yew, and wery the lam. | |
| She maketh earnest matters of euery flymflam. |
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet, E ij b. Trusse vp thy packet of flim flams, & roage to some countrey Faire, or read it among boyes in the belfrie.
a. 1634. Randolph, Poems, To Mem. Brother-in-Law (1681), B iv b.
| Such Iig-like flim-flams being got to make | |
| The Rabble laugh, and nut-cracking forsake. |
1885. L’pool Daily Post, 11 May, 8/7. Grossmith … crowds his picture with all kinds of flim-flams of the drawing-room.
2. A paltry attempt at deception; a contemptible trick or pretence; a piece of humbug. Cf. FLAM sb.1 3.
c. 1538. in State Papers (1834), II. iii. 552. He and his fellawes were sent hither in commission, but for a flim flawe to stoppe the ymagination of the Kynge and Counsaile in that behalf.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 14. He gave me this flim flam, that I had persuadid him sumwhat, and as mutch as a man miht persuade him.
1600. Holland, Livy, VI. xvi. (1609), 227. The Dictatour commanded him to leave off these foolish flimflams & trifling shifts.
1673. Cowley, Cutter of Coleman St., IV. iv. For I’ll ha’ none of his Flim-flams, and his May-be’s.
1805. D’Israeli (title), Flim-Flams, or the Life and Errors of my Uncle.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xci. The startling scandal, the rattling anecdote, the astounding leaps, and the amazing shots, afford for the moment a somewhat pleasing distraction, but when it is discovered that all these habitual flim-flams are, in general, the airy creatures of inaccuracy and exaggeration—that the scandal is not true, the anecdote has no foundation, and that the feats of skill and strength are invested with the organic weakness of tradition, the vagaries lose something of the charm of novelty, and are almost as insipid as claret from which the bouquet has evaporated.
3. collect. Nonsense, rubbish; humbug, deception.
c. 1570. Marr. Wit & Science, II. i.
| A longe tale of a man in the moone, | |
| With such a circumstaunce and such flym flam. |
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVIII. xii. I tell thee ’tis all flimflam.
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister? xxxi. They may be the wanderings of his dotage, and flim-flam after all.
4. The action of ‘flim-flamming’; in quot. attrib.
1894. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 2 May, 9/7. She notified the police, but the flim-flam artist was far away. Ibid., 17 Nov., 9/7. His success in the ‘flim-flam’ game.
B. adj. [Developed from an attrib. use of the sb.; cf. FANCY a.] Frivolous, idle, vain, nonsensical; also, deceptive, fictitious, sham.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., II. 14/1. His slanderous reports are vnderpropt with flim flam surmises.
1631. Mabbe, Celestina, I. 12. Regard not what she saies, for she will tell you a thousand flim-flam tales.
1685. Crowne, Sir C. Nice, III. Dram. Wks. 1874, III. 300. Do you think I regard your flim flam story o’ the church?
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk. Don’t thee tell up no such flim-flam stuff, else nobody ont never harky to thee, nif ever thee-s a-got wit vor to tell sense.
