Flimping, subs. (thieves’).—Stealing from the person.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 38. He told me as
Bill had flimped a yack.
1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. vi., p. 651. We are going a-flimping,
buzzing, cracking, etc.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. lx. Flimping is a style of theft
which I have never practised, and, consequently of which I know
nothing.
Flimsy, or Flim, subs. (common).—1. A bank-note. [From the thinness of
the paper.] Soft-flimsy = a note drawn on ‘The Bank of Elegance,’ or
‘The Bank of Engraving.’ For synonyms, see Soft.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 443. Martin produced some flimsies and
said he would fight on Tuesday next.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (‘Merchant of Venice’). Not
‘kites,’ manufactured to cheat and inveigle, But the right sort of
‘flimsy,’ all sign’d, by Monteagle.
1855. Punch, XXIX., 10. ‘Will you take it in flimsies, or will you
have it all in tin?’
1870. Chambers’ Journal, 9 July, p. 448. ‘What would it be worth?’
‘A flim, Sam.’
1884. Daily Telegraph, 8 Apl., col. 3. One of the slang terms for a
spurious bank-note is a soft-flimsy.
1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 149. Next morning when I went to the
bank to collect the swag, they stopped the flimsy, and had me
arrested before I could look round.
2. (journalists’).—News of all kinds; points (q.v.). [From the thin
prepared paper used by pressmen for making several copies at once].
First used at Lloyd’s.
1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv., 199 ‘At Westminster,’ my lord is
neither a mumbling nor a short-tempered judge; he will ... read
them a great deal of his notes, which are a thousand-fold clearer,
fuller, and more accurate than the reporter’s flimsy.
1865. Morning Star (‘The Flaneur’). A London correspondent, who, by
the aid of flimsy misleads a vast number of provincial papers.
1870. London Figaro, 23 Sept. ‘Special Lining.’ We do not think it
is altogether worthy of the high repute of the Pall Mall Gazette to
publish flimsy as a special correspondence.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. The sharpest of
the reporters had his flimsy up in a minute, and took notes of the
proceedings.
Flinders, subs. (common).—Pieces infinitesimally small.
1870. New York Evening Sun, 24 May. Report of Speech of Mr.
Chandler. Let us knock the British crown to flinders; let us
arrange for some one or two hundred thousand British graves
forthwith, and cabbage the whole boundless continent without any
further procrastination.
Fling, subs. (colloquial).—1. A fit of temper.