Definitions

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

  • noun A nonsensical exclamation attributed to giants and ogres; hence, any expression calculated to impose upon the timid and ignorant.

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

  • noun A nonsensical exclamation attributed to giants and ogres.
  • noun by extension Any expression calculated to impose upon the timid and ignorant.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • She had a vision of herself as an ogre -- whiskers sprouted all over her face, her ears bulged and swaggled, her voice became a cavernous rumble, her conversation sounded like fee-faw-fum -- and yet, her brothers were not afraid of her in the least; they pinched her and kicked her hat.

    Here are Ladies James Stephens 1916

  • He would return with their seven heads swinging pitifully from his girdle, and, when he reached the castle gates, he would gnash his teeth through the keyhole with a noise like the grinding together of great rocks, and would poke his head through the fanlight of the door, and say, fee-faw-fum in a voice of such exceeding loudness that the castle would be shaken to its foundation.

    Here are Ladies James Stephens 1916

  • It sounds like the fee-faw-fum and mummery of a voodoo man. "

    Guy Garrick 1908

  • It sounds like the fee-faw-fum and mummery of a voodoo man. "

    Guy Garrick 1908

  • It sounds like the fee-faw-fum and mummery of a voodoo man. "

    Guy Garrick 1908

  • Shut your eyes, and say, ` Raw-head-and-bloody-bones, fee-faw-fum 'three times, and then look up in the mow just over your own head.”

    Dora Darling 1865

  • My uncle will be here directly, "she added, in a fee-faw-fum tone.

    Clever Woman of the Family Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

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