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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. See Flibberdigibbet.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An offbeat, skittish person; especially said of a young woman.
  2. n. An imp, a fiend.
  3. n. A flighty person; someone regarded as silly, irresponsible, or scatterbrained, especially someone who chatters or gossips

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An imp.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a female fool

Etymologies

  1. Middle English flipergebet.

Examples

  • “For all the seniors out there that find Elizabeth Taylor still relevant, a flibbertigibbet is basically a chatty gossip.”

    Elizabeth Taylor urges primary voters to back Clinton

  • “Either she's misusing the word flibbertigibbet or she's endorsing the wrong candidate.”

    Elizabeth Taylor urges primary voters to back Clinton

  • “Joe Versus The Volcano, only one of whom is a self-described "flibbertigibbet" (a sort of antiquated version of the MPDG).”

    How Now Brownpau

  • “Shakespeare apparently saw a devilish aspect to a gossipy chatterer; he used "flibbertigibbet" in”

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

  • “In phonaesthesia however, some simple combinations of phonemes (like “fl -” in English) have taken on a degree of meaning in their own right, if not iconic (with “fl -” resembling a sound associated with the flick, flap or flourish, the fluttering flight of the fleeting, flouncy flibbertigibbet,) then at least conventionally symbolic (as with the cluster of words in English associating “gl -” with glistening, glittering glints of gleams we glance or glean.)”

    Notes on Notes

  • “Danson, as the constantly stoned and seemingly monstrously self-absorbed magazine editor George, gives the show weight and heft, which is hard to see in the first several episodes because George appears to be a flibbertigibbet.”

    Ted Danson takes down Boredom on points

  • “While gurgling flibbertigibbet Chantelle aims her chest at expressionless alpha-bore Oliver Valentine It's Valentine's Day and your name is Oliver Valentine.”

    The Guardian: It's a good week for … Romance

  • “She had started out as a teenage dancer on Top of the Pops before becoming a mainstay of 1980s Saturday morning children's TV: she played a roller-skating flibbertigibbet on Number 73, and presented Motormouth.”

    The Guardian: Andrea Arnold: 'I don't do easy rides'

  • “(Anyone still believing that this was an heroically unselfish act on the part of an ex-staffer, acting alone to save the tattered reputation of the high-living flibbertigibbet who had just finished underbussing her, is -- to put it charitably -- a gull.)”

    Archive 2009-06-01

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘flibbertigibbet’.

Comments

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  • ruzuzu "A flibbertigibbet. A will-o'-the-wisp. A clown."
    --Three of the nuns in The Sound of Music. Nov 7, 2011

  • atapizdun As mentioned in the Wordnik blog:
    A flibbertigibbet is “a flighty person; someone regarded as silly, irresponsible, or scatterbrained, especially someone who chatters or gossips.” Pretty harmless, right? But back in the 1600s, a flibbertigibbet referred to “the name of a devil,” and is described in King Lear as a “foul fiend.” Oct 26, 2011

  • essceebee I agree with swim suitissue...but I guess saying it fast will come with practice:) Sep 7, 2009

  • rainedancing a Middle English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person, usually a young female. Sep 1, 2009

  • swimsuitissue If this rolled off the tongue quite as easily as "stupid bitch," I'd use it constantly. Apr 7, 2009

  • cgrimm nice word! Feb 29, 2008

‘flibbertigibbet’ has been looked up 3864 times, loved by 28 people, added to 186 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 21.