flim-flam

See also: flimflam

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Ultimately a sound-symbolic reduplication, 1538 as noun, 1660 as verb. Perhaps from a dialectal word or North Germanic/Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).[1]

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -æm
  • IPA(key): /ˈflɪmflæm/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

flim-flam (countable and uncountable, plural flim-flams)

  1. Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
    Most reports of supernatural occurrences turn out to be flim-flam when carefully investigated.
  2. Confidence game, con game.
    • 2025 November 22, David Frum, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Came So Close to Getting the Joke”, in The Atlantic‎[1], archived from the original on 22 November 2025:
      Those who got the joke understood that all of the city’s talk of ideas and principles was flimflam to conceal self-enrichment at the public’s expense. Those who didn’t, didn’t.
  3. (archaic) Table tennis.

Derived terms

  • flim-flam man (“confidence trickster”)
  • flam
  • flim

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “flim-flam”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

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