flimflam
Americannoun
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a trick or deception, especially a swindle or confidence game involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of the victim.
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a piece of nonsense; twaddle; bosh.
verb (used with object)
noun
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nonsense; foolishness
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( as modifier )
flimflam arguments
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a deception; swindle
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flimflam
First recorded in 1530–40; gradational compound of expressive origin
Explanation
A flimflam is a type of scam or con. If you're smart and savvy enough to recognize a flimflam, you won't get cheated out of your money. When someone plans a complicated scheme for tricking people out of their property or money, it's a flimflam. Many flimflams are some version of a con, or "confidence game," in which the con artist first gains the trust (or "confidence") of the victim, and then swindles money from him. You can also use flimflam as a verb: "He tried to flimflam me out of my entire bank account."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He has spent the past two years framing his former partner as “Scam Altman”—something of an AI-era flimflam man.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 3, 2026
“They were dying off,” Whitehead writes, “the old crooks and hustlers and flimflam artists, or upstate after an ill-advised scheme to cover medical bills or six months’ back pay or new teeth.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 12, 2023
"There was a lot of flimflam with him. He conned me pretty good."
From Salon • Oct. 11, 2022
His delivery is so engaged with Eddie’s flimflam and high jinx, it is almost impossible to believe that he — or at least his voice — was not a player.
From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2022
My blood ran cold thinking ’bout how this boy thought this was all a flimflam, and now he’d gone and let this horrible-looking man snatch ahold of his soul!
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
