v. colloq. or vulgar. Also flummix, -ux. [prob. of Eng. dialectal origin; cf. flummocks to maul, mangle (Heref. Gloss., 1839), flummock slovenly person, also hurry, bewilderment, flummock to make untidy, disorder, to confuse, bewilder (see various E.D.S. glossaries, Heref., Glouc., S. Cheshire, Sheffield). The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily; cf. flump, hummock, dial. slommock sloven.]
1. trans. To bring to confusion; to ‘do for,’ cause to fail; to confound, bewilder, nonplus.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxiii. ‘And my ’pinion is, Sammy, that if your governor don’t prove an alleybi, he’ll be what the Italians call reg’larly flummoxed, and that’s all about it.’
1840. Cambr. Univ. Mag., I., in Whibley, In Cap & Gown (1890), 170.
| So many of the men I know | |
| Were ‘flummox’d’ at the last great-go. |
c. 1850. C. Kean, in Barrère & Leland, Slang Dict., s.v. ‘Fool! fool! you distressed—you ruined—you tortured—you—you—flummuxed me!’
1892. Pall Mall G., 16 Feb., 2/1. The Unionists appear to be completely flummoxed by the failure of Mr. Balfour’s Land Act.
2. U.S. colloq. To ‘do up.’
1870. Talmage, Crumbs Swept up, 270. Brushes and other apparatus with which heiresses smoothed, or frizzled, or curled, or twisted, or knotted, or waved, or crimped, or coiled, or bunched, or flumixed their hair.
3. intr. U.S. To give in, give up, collapse.
1847. J. M. Field, Drama in Pokerville, 73. Prehaps Pokerville didn’t wiggle, wince, and finally ‘flummix’ right beneath him!
1849. Oyster War of Accomac, iii., in N. Y. Tribune, 25 April, 1/3.
| Be ye men of mighty stomachs, | |
| Men that can’t be made to flummux. |
Hence Flummox sb. (see quot.).
1851. B. H. Hall, College Words, s.v. Any failure is called a flummux. In some colleges the word is particularly applied to a poor recitation. At Williams College, a failure on the play-ground is called a flummux.
1857. ‘Ducange Anglicus,’ Vulg. Tongue, 8.
