Flam

//flæm// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A freak or whim; an idle fancy. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    Two taps (a grace note followed by a full-volume tap) played very close together in order to sound like one slightly longer note.
  3. 3
    A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext archaic, countable, uncountable

    "all Pretences, or Pleas of Conscience, to the contrary, are nothing but Cant and Cheat, Flam and Delusion."

Verb
  1. 1
    To deceive with a falsehood. obsolete

    "God is not to be flammed off with Lyes."

  2. 2
    To play (notes as) a flam. ambitransitive

    "We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March."

Synonyms

All synonyms
alternative factballot-box stuffingballsbaloneybeatbeguile

Example

More examples

"all Pretences, or Pleas of Conscience, to the contrary, are nothing but Cant and Cheat, Flam and Delusion."

Etymology

Etymology 1

17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).

Etymology 2

Imitative.

Related phrases

flam paradiddlegrace note

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.