flapdoodle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈflæpˌduːdl̩/
ipa: /ˈflæpˌdud(ə)l/
Forms: form: flapdoodles
form: flamdoodle
form: flap-doodle
form: flap doodle
form: doodleflap
form: flipdoodle
Senses: examples: text: ‘The gentleman has eaten no small quantity of flapdoodle in his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien?’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter,’ rejoined he, ‘it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’
ref: 1834 [1832], Frederick Marryat, chapter 28, in Peter Simple:
text: Fiddlesticks and flapdoodle
ref: 1974, Bagpuss (TV series):
text: Why, with my sternest critic's pencil in my hand, its lead as black as my heart, did I not write the word “flapdoodle” in the margin at that point?
ref: 2006 October 7, Nicholas Lezard, “In bed with Tracey Emin”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
text: It is not worth falling into dispute over such a flapdoodle of a vestimentary matter.
ref: 2007, The Times:
synonyms: word: absurdity
word: all my eye
word: all my eye and Betty Martin
word: applesauce
word: bafflegab
word: balderdash
word: balls
word: baloney
word: banana oil
word: Bandini
word: baragouin
word: batcrap
word: batshit
word: bilgewater
word: blah
word: blather
word: blatherskite
word: bobbins
word: bollocks
word: bosh
word: BS
word: bull
word: bullcrap
word: bulldust
word: bull feathers
word: bullshit
word: bullspeak
word: bunk
word: bunkum
word: bushwah
word: clamjamfrey
word: claptrap
word: cobblers
word: codswallop
word: crap
word: crock
word: crock of shit
word: double Dutch
word: double talk
word: doublespeak
word: dribble
word: drivel
word: eyewash
word: fiddle-faddle
word: flapdoodle
word: flim-flam
word: flizz
word: flummery
word: folderol
word: foolishness
word: footle
word: framis
word: fuckery
word: fuckry
word: fudge
word: galimatias
word: garbage
word: garble
word: gibber
word: gibberish
word: gobbledygook
word: gossip
word: Greek
word: guff
word: gup
word: hoax
word: hocus-pocus
word: hogwash
word: hokum
word: hooey
word: horsefeathers
word: horse hockey
word: horse piss
word: horse puckey
word: horseshit
word: humbug
word: Irish bull
word: jabber
word: jargon
word: jibber-jabber
word: jimjam
word: jive
word: junk
word: lallation
word: macaroni
word: malarkey
word: manure
word: meaninglessness
word: moonshine
word: mumbo jumbo
word: nertz
word: nonsense
word: pie in the sky
word: piffle
word: pigswill
word: poppycock
word: prattle
word: put-on
word: rhubarb
word: rhubarb rhubarb
word: rigmarole
word: rot
word: rubbish
word: ruse
word: santorum
word: shit
word: shite
word: skimble-skamble
word: squit
word: stuff
word: stuff and nonsense
word: tommy-rot
word: tosh
word: tush
word: trash
word: tripe
word: twaddle
word: wass
word: whiff-whaff
word: word salad
glosses: Nonsense.
examples: text: Then there was the noble but unseen army of perspiring heroes who wrestled with furniture and wings and other flapdoodles behind the curtain.
ref: 1929, Lisgar Collegiate Institute, Vox Lycei 1928-1929, page 43:
text: What other playwright would dare populate his plays with space aliens, dancing plates and spoons, vampires, girl huns, mystic furballs and bodacious flapdoodles?
ref: 1999, American Theatre - Volume 16, page 17:
text: Suppose you invent a flapdoodle. The flapdoodle can be any color, but your "preferred" flapdoodle is colored red.
ref: 2008, Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society:
glosses: Thingamabob.
examples: text: Here, So-and-so ”—to some one on whose countenance a faint gleam of comprehension was discernible—“ tell these flapdoodles of the ages what I mean.”
ref: 1893, Annie Besant, Annie Besant: An Autobiography, page 363:
text: As for the others, no one cares a brass farthing what Olcott and his "flapdoodles" may do or say.
ref: 1895, St. Martin's-le-grand - Volume 5, page 102:
glosses: A speaker or writer of nonsense.
Derived terms: flapdoodler
flapdoodlery