Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also flimflam, 1530s, a contemptuous echoic construction, perhaps connected to some unrecorded dialectal word from Scandinavian (compare Old Norse flim "a lampoon"). From 1650s as a verb. Related: Flim-flammer.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true. 2 confidence game, con game 3 (context archaic English) table tennis
Wikipedia
Flim-flam may refer to:
- Confidence trick, a fraud scheme
- Flim-Flam!, a book by James Randi
- Flim Flam, a character from Scooby-Doo
- Flim Flam (horse) a Hanoverian gelding
Usage examples of "flim-flam".
A practical man, our captain, Findhorn thought, not given to expressions of good luck or similar flim-flam.
Jasper Billington Innes, thought Moggie Reilly, as he headed, undressing, for the shower, was one of the last people he'd have expected to aim to win by flim-flam.
But if I take your word you weren't flim-flamming me about some pals who only wanted to know how you were doing with the sucker, let's try and slice it a couple of other ways.