flummery
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈflʌməɹi/
flummery (plural flummeries)
- A custard; any of several bland, gelatinous foodstuffs, usually made from stewed fruit and thickened with oatmeal, cornstarch or flour.
- Empty or meaningless talk, especially when used to flatter.
- pretentious trappings, useless ornaments used to impress.
- Deceptive or blustering speech.
- 1940, Rex Stout, Over My Dead Body
- "Pfui! This is flummery!"
- 1960, John Wyndham, The Trouble With Lichen (Penguin Books), page 91:
- This is the twentieth century, for what it’s worth. It’s not the age of reason, or even the nineteenth century, it’s the era of flummery, and the day of the devious approach. Reason’s gone into the backrooms where it works to devise means by which people can be induced to emote in the desired direction.
- 1940, Rex Stout, Over My Dead Body
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003