flimflam means to swindle or cheat. It carries an Arena rating of 1778, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, flimflam ranks #119 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #541 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #731 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,648 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
flimflam is pronounced /ˈflɪmflæm/.
Why “flimflam” is a great word
To cheat someone through elaborate but ultimately trivial deception or nonsensical patter. Of expressive, echoic origin; a reduplicative formation, likely of Scandinavian influence (compare Old Norse *flim*, meaning "mockery"). First recorded in English use circa 1530. Unlike "deceive" (a general term for causing belief in falsehood) or "defraud" (which implies serious, legally consequential theft), to flimflam is to swindle with a flash of empty spectacle. It is the three-card monte game on a grimy city corner, the slick sales pitch for a tonic that promises everything and cures nothing, the grandiose scheme built on tissue-paper premises—deception as vaudeville, the grift that knows itself absurd even as it takes your dollar.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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