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Synonyms

jimjams

American  
[jim-jamz] / ˈdʒɪmˌdʒæmz /

noun

(used with a plural verb)
  1. extreme nervousness; jitters.

  2. delirium tremens.


jimjams British  
/ ˈdʒɪmˌdʒæmz /

plural noun

  1. a slang word for delirium tremens

  2. a state of nervous tension, excitement, or anxiety

  3. informal pyjamas

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

It may well give genuine admirers of good cinema and credible Englishmen the jimjams.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

He was a young fellow, one of "Kitchener's crowd," and told us frankly that he had the "jimjams" in this solitude of Ypres and "saw Germans" every time a rat jumped.

From Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs

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 Herman Landon

O, we’re camped in the sand in a foreign land Near the mighty Agus River, With the brush at our toes, the skeeters at our nose, The jimjams and the fever.

From The Great White Tribe in Filipinia by Paul T. (Paul Thomas) Gilbert

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