Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Informal A lie or hoax; a deception.
- n. Informal Nonsense; drivel.
- n. Music A drumbeat consisting of two almost simultaneous strokes of which the first is a very rapid grace note.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- A dialectal form of flame. Compare flamb.
- n. A delusion; an illusory pretext; a deception; a falsehood; a lie.
- n. In drum-music, a grace-note.
- Deceptive; lying; false.
- To deceive with falsehood; impose upon; delude: often with off.
- n. A low marshy place, particularly near a river.
Wiktionary
- n. A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.
- v. obsolete To deceive with a falsehood.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.
- v. obsolete To deceive with a falsehood.
Etymologies
- 17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectical word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim ("lampoon, mockery"). (Wiktionary)
- Short for flimflam.Probably of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Without the ability to organize by activity, Twitter and Facebook feeds remain a cacophony of messages (they encourage people to send what I call flam -- Friends 'Lovingly Annoying Messages).”
“But, of course, writing a 4,000 word flam from “pure” imagination is a facile wank.”
Cheeseburger Gothic » Friday Writing Blog: Preparation, planning and where ideas come from.
“The country will not endure another pretentious-sounding banker-friendly flim flam, which is precisely what Geithner has in mind.”
“Much of what they say is flim-flam, and this blog aims to set the record straight.”
Guest Post: What’s the Logic of Language? « Motivated Grammar
“The present hearing/inquiry/flim-flam is a complete waste of time.”
Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Tony Blair said: “I...
“They're full of the kind of eco waffle & general flim flam like “strong society” & “social responsibility” & plenty of mentions of Obama in glowing light ( "The Thick of It" without the swearing) that will have the average Coffee Houser spluttering on the last of their Christmas ginger wine & dashing off to UKIP.”
“Dave's horizon doesn't stretch beyond pr trickery and flim flam.”
“If Iraqi leaders want to engage in flim-flam political maneuvers that enrage their opponents, alienate millions of Sunnis and ignite a new round of sectarian violence, that is their business.”
“It was a touching and very American story, until flim-flam man Andrew Breitbart edited the tape and Fox News treated his counterfeit as holy writ.”
“And when a candidate calls a spade a spade and labels our presence in Afghanistan an occupation instead of some bunco flim-flam about counterinsurgency, it tells you that this person has thoroughly thought out their position on national security.”
The Huffington Post: Josh Mull: North Carolina: Afghanistan Destroys Another Candidate
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flam’.
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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May 2010 (Wedding Month!!)
Just the words I meet this month, starting with cecum.
cecum, compersion, antilogy, fantods, dord, flam, ipsedixitism, quartine, glycation, neoteny, desiccation, hypovolemia and 17 more...
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hedges's Words
wii, crepuscule, adumbrate, concatenation, sufi, qawwali, furry, riot, mellifluous, conspiracy, etymology, tea cozy and 369 more...
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Fife and Drum Words
For all those fifers and drummers out there... This one's for you.
Related lists are here and here.drum, fife, sticks, ears, rope-tensioned, snare, snare head, batter head, shell, rim, sling, paradiddle and 72 more...
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antinastar's Words
fug, alb, sheisty, moribund, noisome, scampo, undulate, sputum, glistening, labial, behoove, cerulean and 60 more...
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Humbug and bafflegab
oil, rot, gas, gup, pop, jive, bull, jazz, guff, pish, tosh, flam and 83 more...
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Stupid Drumming Terms That Run Throug...
Just what it says. You can string these together in various combinations in order to speak drum more fluently, which I can't do yet. And I've purposely left off some of the more x-rated ones.
coconut, coconut rum, irish whiskey, trip-a-let, trip-a-let tap, flam, flamadiddle, jugga jugga, juggadut, buzz buzz tap, jrrrrrrat dat, jrrrat and 28 more...
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drummer's jargon
Often these words have the same amount of syllables as strokes, so for instance saying, 'triplet-triplet-dragadiddle-flam', is roughly played as it is pronounced. *see comments for triplet.
ratamacue, triplet, diddle, rudiment, paradiddle, paraddiddle-diddle, flam, flamacue, flamadiddle, pataflafla, dragadiddle, rimshot
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language of drums
flam, ruff, paradiddle, paradiddle-diddle, dragadiddle, ratamacue, flamacue, flam paradiddle, flam paradiddle-d..., flam drag, single flammed mill, inverted flam tap and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flam.
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