Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Nonsense; humbug.
- noun A deception; a swindle.
- transitive verb To swindle; cheat.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A freak; a trick; an imposition or deception.
- To cheat out of (money), as in making or receiving change or the like.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A freak; a trick; a lie.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
nonsense - noun
deception - verb To
swindle orcheat
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb deceive somebody
- noun a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word flimflam.
Examples
-
He characterized as a flimflam my Medicare Advantage amendment to the health-care bill that would transitionally protect the benefits of nearly a million seniors currently enrolled in these plans.
SplicedFeed 2010
-
But, though sober reason told him this, it was astonishingly comforting to be going to some one who could be relied on to see the facts of the situation without any of that 'flimflam' with which imagination is accustomed to surround them.
The Freelands John Galsworthy 1900
-
But, though sober reason told him this, it was astonishingly comforting to be going to some one who could be relied on to see the facts of the situation without any of that 'flimflam' with which imagination is accustomed to surround them.
Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works John Galsworthy 1900
-
He threw around the word "flimflam," as in Ryan is "serving up leftovers from the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce."
The Patriot Post R. Emmett Tyrrell 2010
-
He used "flimflam" elsewhere and concluded that "the Ryan plan is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America's fiscal future."
The Patriot Post R. Emmett Tyrrell 2010
-
Also the local gas station is a haven for flimflam gas scams.
Calakmul 2009
-
Also the local gas station is a haven for flimflam gas scams.
Calakmul 2009
-
In other words, instead of glamorizing Sarah like The Times did with this biker edition Cover Girl photo and the movie lot "Easy Rider" title, what if the media published photos of Team Palin -- in this case, at Sunday's Rolling Thunder veteran POW/MIA motorcycle ride starting at the Pentagon -- as the flimflam they really are?
Michael Shaw: Reading the Pictures: What if the Media Stopped Sensationalizing Sarah Palin? Michael Shaw 2011
-
Also the local gas station is a haven for flimflam gas scams.
Calakmul 2009
-
"Rudolf Steiner was a complete nutcase," Mr. Smith writes, "a flimflam man with a tremendous imagination, a combination if you will, of an LSD-dropping Timothy Leary with the showmanship of a P.T. Barnum."
Biodynamics: Natural Wonder or Just a Horn of Manure? jaY MCINERNEY 2010
Louises commented on the word flimflam
False ID's, code words, assignations, surveillance, night flights. Espionage flimflam. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
February 27, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word flimflam
"Can a fund be provided for?, in the terse shorthand of railroad telegraphy. --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 22, 2013