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Definition of "flummery" [flum•mer•y]

  • Meaningless or deceptive language; humbug. (noun)
  • Any of several soft, sweet, bland foods, such as custard. (noun)
  • A sweet gelatinous pudding made by straining boiled oatmeal or flour. (noun)
  • A soft dessert of stewed, thickened fruit, often mixed with a grain such as rice. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "flummery" in a sentence
  • "Dutch flummery is made by boiling two ounces of isinglass in three half-pints of water very gently for half an hour."
  • "Rice flummery, which is a very nice side dish, is made by mixing a quarter of a pound of ground rice with a little cold milk, and then adding a pint of new milk which has been boiled, with a stick of cinnamon and a bit of lemon-peel; flavour it with sugar and a teaspoonful of peach-water."
  • "Sylvia's position and outlook from this level then, I thrust my way through what I impatiently dismissed as the "flummery"; by which I meant the poetry, the picturesqueness, the sacrosanct glamour surrounding his"