Flag-Wagging, subs. (military).—Flag-signal drill.
Flam, subs. (colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms, see Gammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: as a regular flam (for synonyms, see Whopper). Cf. FLim-flam.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf., Flim-flam.]
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some new flam or other, nothing to the matter.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. A flam more senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.
1742–4. Roger North, Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured such flams at him.
1760. Foote, Minor, Act II. Had the flam been fact, your behaviour was natural enough.
1762. Foote, Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that this flam of Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?
1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all a flam about the child in the bundle!
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick nor flam, but your real Schiedam.