flimsy
Americanadjective
noun
-
a thin kind of paper, especially for use in making several copies at a time of an article, telegraphic dispatch, or the like, as in newspaper work.
-
a copy of a report or dispatch on such paper.
adjective
-
not strong or substantial; fragile
a flimsy building
-
light and thin
a flimsy dress
-
unconvincing or inadequate; weak
a flimsy excuse
noun
-
thin paper used for making carbon copies of a letter, etc
-
a copy made on such paper
-
a slang word for banknote
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of flimsy
1695–1705; flim- (perhaps metathetic variant of film ) + -sy
Explanation
You can describe weak, thin, and fragile things as flimsy. Onion smells are strong, onion skins are flimsy. Blaming onions for making you cry during a sad movie, that's a flimsy excuse, when there are no onions in the theater. A flimsy object and a flimsy objection or excuse are both without weight and are easy to knock down. You can see right through a flimsy curtain, and you can see right through a flimsy lie. If a tent or house of cards is flimsy, it will fall down with a slight breeze, and if your story isn't convincing anyone, it's probably weak and flimsy enough to flatten, too.
Vocabulary lists containing flimsy
List 6
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The Cay
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Vocabulary from "Stop Expecting Games to Build Empathy" by Julie Muncy
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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:
In the end, all that’s left is another thinly written woman in horror, camouflaged by tongue-in-cheek jokes and flimsy progressive ideas.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
And certainly not a flimsy, clunky Luka Doncic-and-Antetokounmpo Lakers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
The hotel supplies a bath towel, hand towel, flimsy slippers and a disposable toothbrush and toothpaste.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
"This is a very flimsy foundation to build your entire industry on."
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
I feel exactly the way I do when I wake up from the dream where I’m naked in the school cafeteria and only have those flimsy pathetic napkin squares to cover myself up.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Army lieutenant in trackman's flimsies stepped into the discus ring.
From Time Magazine Archive
Otto, melodramatically helped by various Black-Fronters, fled the country, started his years of writing and smuggling through revolutionary flimsies and stickers.
From Time Magazine Archive
But, Captain, sit down here, and overhaul our flimsies.
From Springhaven : a Tale of the Great War by Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
No fisherman upon the sea ever tangled fish more successfully than we women with our flimsies.
From The Valley of the Moon by London, Jack
"I'd better take these two notes away," he said, beginning to fold up the flimsies.
From The Grell Mystery by Froest, Frank
However, that argument too, is looking flimsier given how expensive AI models are to build for relatively little payoff.
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
Many have been enduring temperatures well below freezing in flimsier tent-like units with blue plastic sheeting on the outside and a quilted cotton lining inside.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2023
They’re the closest thing Asus has to a MacBook Air competitor, with chassis that are slightly flimsier, touchpads with fancier features, and price tags that are a bit less intimidating.
From The Verge ● Aug. 15, 2022
Napkins, restaurant checks, currency, all the flimsier items of daily life outdoors might easily have been borne off on the breeze.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2022
The old mansion still stands deep within this property, though most of the flimsier structures around it have been swallowed by time and the elements.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
The Chobot-Collier team never speaks to the authorities, or any police at all, save for the handlers of a cadaver dog used in a search for Theresa’s body, an effort launched on the flimsiest lead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Corbet’s desire to stick it to the man takes over the film’s last stretch, which is also its flimsiest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, an official at Germany’s Foreign Ministry and lead counsel in the case, told the 15-judge bench that Nicaragua had “rushed this case to court on the basis of the flimsiest evidence.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2024
And in this modern era of ubiquitous social media and technology, when there’s the impulse to make people famous for even the flimsiest of reality-TV reasons?
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
Just four more blocks, but my shoes are held to my feet with the flimsiest of straps; my skirt allows only for short, quick steps.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
