flim-flam en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
- /ˈflɪmflæm/
Etymology
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”).
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true.
Most reports of supernatural occurrences turn out to be flim-flam when carefully investigated.
-
(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.
2025 November 22, David Frum, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Came So Close to Getting the Joke”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 22 Nov 2025:
- (archaic, countable, uncountable) Table tennis.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| flim-flams | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| flim flam | alternative | lexicographic | |
| flimflam | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
flam · flim-flam man · flim
Synonyms
guff · bullcrap · blah · horse puckey · folderol · codswallop · trittle trattle · baloney · eyewash · bilgewater · claptrap · footle · twaddle · bafflegab · flummery · horse hockey · macaroni · tush · flizz · rhubarb · jabber · foolishness · cobblers · dribble · doublespeak · ruse · drivel · gibber · BS · prattle · gibberish · flapdoodle · stuff · bunk · blatherskite · absurdity · whiff-whaff · balderdash · horseshit · galimatias · fiddle-faddle · double talk · jibber-jabber · word salad · jimjam · all my eye · tommy-rot · tosh · rot · humbug · garble · Bandini · nonsense · bobbins · santorum · baragouin · blah-blah-blah · apple grease · fuckry · shit · framis · skimble-skamble · Gallophone · bunkum · banana oil · stuff and nonsense · jargon · blather · pie in the sky · moonshine · hooey · junk · meaninglessness · crap · clamjamfrey · fuckery · all my eye and Betty Martin · gobbledygook · double Dutch · piffle · Irish bull · garbage · bushwah · poppycock · batshit · wass · shite · bull · put-on · horsefeathers · rhubarb rhubarb · bull feathers · nertz · manure · hokum · applesauce · mumbo jumbo · blah-blah · hogwash · lallation · hocus-pocus · bollocks · bosh · rigmarole · jabberwocky · trash · gash · bullspeak · tripe · squit · hoax · bullshit · flim-flam · malarkey · balls · Greek · batcrap · crock of shit · bulldust · gup · fudge · crock · horse cock · jive · gossip · horse piss · pigswill · rubbish