English is full of words concerned with trickery and deception, ranging from the colorful "flimflam," "bamboozle," and "hornswoggle" to the more mundane "deceive," "mislead," and "delude." "Flimflam" first entered English as a noun meaning "deceptive nonsense" in the second half of the 16th century. A sense meaning "deception" or "fraud" soon developed. The verb use didn't show up until well into the next century. In addition to general deceiving or tricking, the verb "flimflam" is often used specifically to refer to swindling someone out of money. The ultimate origin of "flimflam" is uncertain, but the word is probably of Scandinavian origin and may be related to the Old Norse flim, meaning "mockery."
Noun The report is just a lot of corporate flimflam. giving the new guy at work her cell phone number—“in case of an emergency”—was just a flimflam to pique his romantic interest Verb everyone likes to think that they're too smart to be flimflammed by anyone
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
There are no extra fillers, no gimmicks, and no flimflam.The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 Aug. 2022 Instead, Democrats should present voters with a material choice between a party that has nothing to offer the majority of Americans but abuse and conspiratorial flimflam and a party committed to building a democracy and an economy that work for all. Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 5 Feb. 2021 Might that statement actually be a bit of protective flimflam? Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2020 There’s always seemed to be a bit of flimflam behind that gigglemug of his. Jonah Goldberg, National Review, 4 Dec. 2019 Zirin does not get lost in the clouds of flimflam that have spewed out of Trump for decades, which other biographers have taken as their mission to prove or disprove.Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2019 The telltale sign of political flimflam is a promise to deliver all the benefits associated with a particular policy without any of the costs. Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2019 The far-reaching, proposed climate legislation championed by liberal lawmakers Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, and derided by Trump as economic flimflam, aims to tackle climate change. Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2019 Voters’ civic duty lies in applying their best judgment to separate the fact from the flimflam. Joseph C. Sternberg, WSJ, 17 Jan. 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse flim mockery