jimjams
Americanplural noun
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a slang word for delirium tremens
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a state of nervous tension, excitement, or anxiety
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informal pyjamas
Etymology
Origin of jimjams
1540–50; gradational compound based on jam 1. Cf. flimflam, jingle-jangle, etc.
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.
To sidewalk farmers, who suppose that a ridgeling is the peak in a barn roof and a freemartin a species of swallow,*some of Gus's outbuildings and his hog runs might well give the jimjams.
From Time Magazine Archive
It may well give genuine admirers of good cinema and credible Englishmen the jimjams.
From Time Magazine Archive
If you do," drawled Shotwell to Fair, as they hurried down into the lamplight, "you'll think the devil's inside of her with the jimjams.
From John March, Southerner by Cable, George W.
For one thing, Pinto, no cop goes into hysterics at sight of a dead body unless his conscience is giving him the jimjams.
From The Gray Phantom's Return by Landon, Herman
It is certain that gold standing alone is not; for its fluctuations in purchasing power have been so tremendous as again and again to throw the commercial world into jimjams.
From If Not Silver, What? by Bookwalter, John W.
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.
