flim-flam

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flim-flam

/ˈflɪmflæm/

Rhymes with -æm

Where it comes from

Ultimately a sound-symbolic reduplication, 1538 as noun, 1660 as verb. Perhaps from a dialectal word or North Germanic/Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).

noun flim-flams · flimflam · flim flam

countable, uncountable Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true. Most reports of supernatural occurrences turn out to be flim-flam when carefully investigated.
Similar: absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil, Bandini, baragouin
countable, uncountable Confidence game, con game. Those who got the joke understood that all of the city’s talk of ideas and principles was flimflam to conceal self-enrichment at the public’s expense. Those who didn’t, didn’t.
archaic, countable, uncountable Table tennis.

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MLA

"flim-flam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/flim-flam. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

flim-flam. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/flim-flam

Chicago

"flim-flam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/flim-flam.

BibTeX

@misc{flim_flam_2026,
  title = {flim-flam},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/flim-flam},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}