Also 7 flommeri, flumery, thlummery, 7–8 flamery. [a. Welsh llymru, of unknown etymology; the fl- and Herbert’s thl- are attempts to render the sound of Welsh ll-; cf. FLUELLIN.]
1. ‘A kind of food made by coagulation of wheat-flour or oatmeal’ (J.). Cf. SOWENS.
1623. Markham, Eng. Housew., vi. 222. From this small Oat-meale, by oft steeping it in water and clensing it, and then boyling it to a thicke and stiffe Ielly, is made that excellent dish of meat which is so esteemed in the West parts of this Kingdome, which they call Wash-brew, and in Chesheire and Lankasheire they call it Flamerie or Flumerie.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 150. The poore eat Rice sometimes, but most commonly Roots, Melons, Fruits, Garlicke, Opium, Honey, and Fraize like to our Thlummery.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. W., lviii. There was a farmer in my parish who used to sup upon wild ducks and flummery.
1821. Blackw. Mag. VIII. 541.
| Let missions go to Greenland with Montgomery; | |
| Let green-sick ladies sonnetize with Bowles; | |
| Let Leigh Hunt sing of cabbages and flummery, | |
| And currant bushes blooming on green knowls. |
1839–73. Bywater, Sheffield Dial. (1877), 257. Nooa man can ivver be made rational whoile he’s had his throit scolded we heitin flummera.
b. Modern Cookery. A name given to various sweet dishes made with milk, flour, eggs, etc.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xvi. 146. To make Hartshorn Flummery. Ibid., 147. To make French Flummery.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 186. When you make a hen’s or bird’s nest, let part of your jelly be set in your bowl before you put on your flummery or straw, for if your jelly is warm they will settle to the bottom, and mix together.
1877. Cassell’s Dict. Cookery, Flummery—Boil two ounces of gelatine [etc.].
c. (See quot.)
1876. Crace-Calvert, Dyeing & Calico Print., vi. 200. Flummery (the refuse product from wheaten starch manufactures).
2. fig. Mere flattery or empty compliment; nonsense, humbug, empty trifling.
1749. Lady Luxborough, Lett. to Shenstone, 29 Nov. (1775), 143. This word flummery, you must know, Sir, means at London, flattery, and compliment; and is the present reigning word among the beaux and belles.
1828. Scott, Jrnl., 19 Feb. The proofs of my Sermons are arrived, but I have had no time, saving to blot out some flummery, which poor Gordon had put into the preface.
1860. Thackeray, Round. Papers, Thorns in Cush. (1876), 50. A very common way with these petitioners is to begin with a fine flummery about the merits and eminent genius of the person whom they are addressing.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, II. xxvi. 66. Her father, who is quite as opposed to such flummery as I.
attrib. 1802. Mrs. Parsons, Myst. Visit, IV. 39. I know you too well to be deceived by your fine flummery tales.
1858. Masson, Milton (1874), I. 25. The impressions he may have received from flummery pictures representing the blind poet in a rapt attitude dictating Paradise Lost to his attentive and revering daughters.
