Flummery

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Flummery \Flum"mer*y\, n. [W. llumru, or llumruwd, a kind of
     food made of oatmeal steeped in water until it has turned
     sour, fr. llumrig harsh, raw, crude, fr. llum sharp, severe.]
     1. A light kind of food, formerly made of flour or meal; a
        sort of pap.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              Milk and flummery are very fit for children.
                                                    --Locke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Something insipid, or not worth having; empty compliment;
        trash; unsubstantial talk of writing.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The flummery of modern criticism.     --J. Morley.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sowens \Sow"ens\ (? or ?), n. pl. [Scottish; cf. AS. se['a]w
     juice, glue, paste.]
     A nutritious article of food, much used in Scotland, made
     from the husk of the oat by a process not unlike that by
     which common starch is made; -- called {flummery} in England.
     [Written also {sowans}, and {sowins}.]
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  flummery
       n 1: a bland custard or pudding especially of oatmeal
       2: meaningless ceremonies and flattery [syn: {mummery}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  52 Moby Thesaurus words for "flummery":
     absurdity, amphigory, babble, babblement, balderdash,
     bibble-babble, blabber, blather, bombast, claptrap, double-talk,
     drivel, drool, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, folderol, fudge,
     fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, gibber, gibberish,
     gibble-gabble, gobbledygook, hocus-pocus, humbug, jabber, jargon,
     mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, pack of nonsense,
     palaver, prate, prattle, rant, rigamarole, rigmarole, rodomontade,
     rubbish, skimble-skamble, stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence,
     trash, trumpery, twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, vaporing,
     waffling