17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) A freak or whim; an idle fancy.
(archaic, countable, uncountable) A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext
a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
all Pretences, or Pleas of Conscience, to the contrary, are nothing but Cant and Cheat, Flam and Delusion. 1692, Robert South, "A Further Account of the Nature and Measures of Conscience", in Forty Eight Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (published 1697)
17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).
Meanings
(obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.
God is not to be flammed off with Lyes. 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
(ambitransitive, qualifier:drumming) To play (notes as) a flam.
Drums ruffled and flammed. 1975, George Shipway, Free Lance, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, →ISBN:
We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March. 1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10: