Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being flimsy; thin, weak texture; weakness; want of substance or solidity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state or quality of being flimsy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality of being flimsy

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of weakness by virtue of careless construction

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Now, there is a peculiarity in Rubens 'method, and which strictly belongs to his colouring, from which arises what may be not improperly designated flimsiness, that is, the leaving too much of the first getting in of his picture, the first transparent sketchy brown.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. Various

  • Sydney Chaffee continued, "I've gotten closer to achieving a balance between two extremes in my own intentions -- the extreme concreteness of many 9th graders' first intentions and the extreme flimsiness of the overly poetic, grand intentions of my first few years which were hard for me to know if I was actually doing."

    Meg Campbell: What's Your Intention This School Year? Meg Campbell 2011

  • The mixing of metaphors alone betrays the flimsiness of that analysis.

    2012: A U.S. Referendum on Europe Bret Stephens 2012

  • I'm being facetious, but it shows at once the flimsiness of Chaplin's argument and the instinctive response that Guy Product Managers like us will make "Well, that's where the market is!"

    Kicking The Dog SVGL 2009

  • I think the biggest problem I have with the pan is its flimsiness.

    Facing My Fear of Silicone Bakeware Marni 2009

  • He then says the length of the list, plus its “flimsiness,” points towards his more esoteric interpretation.

    Can't I just be pro-transportation? 2011

  • But sitting here today, given Rodriguez's overwhelming credentials (which surpass even Bagwell's) and the flimsiness of the steroids evidence against him -- far less than what is known (or alleged) in regards to Palmeiro, McGwire, Bonds, Clemens or Sosa -- I suspect he would eventually get in.

    Can we still call Pudge a "future Hall-of-Famer"? Dave Sheinin 2011

  • Sydney Chaffee continued, "I've gotten closer to achieving a balance between two extremes in my own intentions -- the extreme concreteness of many 9th graders' first intentions and the extreme flimsiness of the overly poetic, grand intentions of my first few years which were hard for me to know if I was actually doing."

    Meg Campbell: What's Your Intention This School Year? Meg Campbell 2011

  • Despite the flimsiness of their tent, the Jouberts say they've never been attacked by lions, and only once by a thirsty elephant who tried to steal their water, dragging their accommodations, apparently while they were outside, into a dry riverbed.

    Directing Traffic on Safari Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

  • The swans who don't conform, who throw punches; the uber-lipsticked prince who blankly gestures "huh?" when Swan Queen Odette unspools a sequence of nose-in-the-air fingerplay and arm-waving that approximates a 19th-century mime sequence carried out with 21st-century flimsiness.

    Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: Divas infuse humor, character in dances Sarah Kaufman 2010

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