Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lie or hoax; a deception.
  • noun Nonsense; drivel.
  • noun A drumbeat consisting of two almost simultaneous strokes of which the first is a very rapid grace note.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A dialectal form of flame. Compare flamb.
  • noun A delusion; an illusory pretext; a deception; a falsehood; a lie.
  • noun In drum-music, a grace-note.
  • Deceptive; lying; false.
  • To deceive with falsehood; impose upon; delude: often with off.
  • noun A low marshy place, particularly near a river.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To deceive with a falsehood.
  • noun obsolete A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.

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

  • noun A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.
  • verb obsolete To deceive with a falsehood.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for flimflam.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectical word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim ("lampoon, mockery").

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