flimflam (flimflam)

[A varied reduplication of flam2; cf. flipflap, whimwham, etc.] A freak; a trick; an imposition or deception. This is a pretty flim -flam. 2270 sense of pain; shrink back from anything painful or dangerous; manifest a feeling or a fear of suffering or injury of any kind; draw back from any act or undertaking through dread of consequences; shrink; wince: as, the pain was severe, but he did not flinch. They (Moskito Indians] behave themselves very bold in fight, and never seem to flinch nor hang back; for they think that the white men with whom they are know better than they when it is best to fight. Dampier , Voyages, I. 8. He [Stuyvesant] was never a man to flinch when he found himself in a scrape; but to dash forward through thick and thin, trusting, by hook or by crook, to make all things Irving , Knickerbocker, p. 269, straight in the end. The mere holiday-politician... flinches from his duties as soon as those duties become difficult and disagreeable. Macaulay, Sir William Temple. 2. In croquet , to allow the foot to slip from the ball in the act of croqueting. flinch (flinch), v . t . Same as flense . flincher (flin'chèr), n. One who flinches. IMG:content-1497.png:[blocks in formation]