flam
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)
- A freak or whim; an idle fancy.
- (archaic) A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext
- 1692
- All pretences to the contrary are nothing but cant and cheat, flam and delusion.[1]
- South
- a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity
- 1692
Translations
an illusory pretext; deception; delusion
Verb
flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)
- (obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.
- South
- God is not to be flammed off with lies.
- South
Translations
To deceive with a falsehood.
|
Etymology 2
Imitative.
Noun
flam (plural flams)
- (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
Verb
flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)
- (drumming) To play (notes as) a flam.
- 1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10:
- We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March.
- 1975, George Shipway, Free Lance, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P (→ISBN):
- Drums ruffled and flammed.
- 1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10:
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Flimflam / Claptrap, The Word Detective, 2009–04–13
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “flam”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
Catalan
Noun
flam m (plural flams)
- flan (custard dessert)
Volapük
Noun
flam (nominative plural flams)