flam

See also: Flam and flám

English

Etymology 1

17th century; from flim-flam,[1] itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).[2]

Noun

flam (countable and uncountable, plural flams)

  1. A freak or whim; an idle fancy.
  2. (archaic) A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext
    Synonyms: deception, delusion
    • 1692
      All pretences to the contrary are nothing but cant and cheat, flam and delusion.[1]
    • South
      a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity
Translations

Verb

flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)

  1. (obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.
    • South
      God is not to be flammed off with lies.
Translations

Etymology 2

Imitative.

Noun

flam (plural flams)

  1. (drumming) Two taps (a grace note followed by a full-volume tap) played very close together in order to sound like one slightly longer note.
Derived terms

References

  1. 1 2 Flimflam / Claptrap, The Word Detective, 2009–04–13
  2. ↑ “flam” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Anagrams

Catalan

Noun

flam m (plural flams)

  1. flan (custard dessert)

Volapük

Noun

flam (plural flams)

  1. flame

Declension

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