a. and adv. Obs. exc. dial. Also 8 chim-cham. [app. f. kam, CAM a., crooked, awry, reduplicated as in flim-flam, jim-jam, etc.]
A. adj. Crooked, awkward, perverse, contrary.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 44. Thee wauering Commons in kym kam sectes ar haled.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. iii. § 47 (1740), 151. Now the Reason of all this Chim-Cham Stuff, is the ridiculous Undertaking, of the Author, to prove Oates’ Plot … out of Coleman’s Papers.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., s.v., Let’s a none o’ yore kim-kam ways.
B. adv. Crookedly, awry; in a wayward, perverse or contrary way.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 452. Every thing then was turned upside downe, and … all went kim kam.
1658. J. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., I. xii. 113. He presumes [etc.] … kim kam to the experience of all Common-wealths.
1691–2. Aubrey, Brief Lives (1898), I. 47. [1666] This yeare all my businesses and affaires ran kim-kam.
18[?]. Whittaker, in Lancash. Gloss., Kim-kam, (to walk) with a throw of the legs athwart one another.
