Meaning of Flimsy | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A thing which is ill-founded, unconvincing, or weak.
   countable, dated, historical, uncountable
2. Thin typing paper used together with carbon paper in a typewriter to make multiple copies of a document; (countable) a sheet of such paper.
   also, attributive, dated, historical, uncountable
3. A document printed or typed on such paper.
   broadly, countable, dated, historical, slang
4. A service certificate.
   broadly, countable, dated, historical, slang
5. A banknote; (uncountable) paper money.
   broadly, countable, dated, historical, slang
6. The text to be set into pages of magazines, newspapers, etc.; copy.
   broadly, dated, historical, uncountable
7. A hexahedral metal container with a capacity of four imperial gallons (about 18 litres) used by the British Army during World War II to hold fuel.
   UK, countable, dated, historical, slang, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Is every body incapable of reaſon, and making a right eſtimate of the merits of men? caught vvith mere outſide? chooſing the flimſy before the ſubſtantial?”

““‘Pray, miss,’ he said, ‘do not interrupt me. I represent the Press. The Fourth Estate, miss. I’m afraid I shan’t have enough flimsy.’ “Those were his very words, Kate. By flimsy, I learn that he meant writing paper. Do our great poets—does my adored [Alfred, Lord] Tennyson write on ‘flimsy?’[”]”

“I had just finished breakfast and was filling my pipe when I got Bullivant's telegram. […] I flung him the flimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it, and he whistled.”

“She dragged the cover off the typewriter with sound and fury, jerked the desk-drawers till they slammed against the drawer-stops, shook the top-sheet carbons and flimsies together as a terrier shakes a rat, and attacked the machine tempestuously.”

“'I told you that I had an answer to that cable, Mr Stewart,' he said directly. 'I'm afraid it isn't very satisfactory.' He passed the flimsy to Keith, who could not read it without the steel-rimmed spectacles he always had to use for close work.”

“Smiley peered once more at the flimsy which he still clutched in his pudgy hand.”

“A perusal of the comments of officers under whom he [Captain Duncan Herbert Stevens] has served as recorded in his “flimsies" indicates that he has almost consistently received high commendation for his service.”

“Regulations required a commanding officer to render annual confidential reports on the character and ability of his officers – with particular reference to sobriety – on forms known as ‘flimsies’.”

“In English Exchequer-bills full half a million, / Not “kites,” manufactured to cheat and inveigle, / But the right sort of ‘flimsy,’ all sign’d by Monteagle.”

“THE THIEVES' ALPHABET. […] Q was a Queer-screen, that served as a blind;†† / R was a Reader,‡‡ with flimsies well lined; […]”

“[page 31] Sub-editors are now hard at work cutting down "flimsy," ramming sheets of "copy" on files, endlessly conferring with perspiring foremen. […] [page 34] The last report from the late debate in the Commons has come in; the last paragraph of interesting news, dropped into the box by a stealthy penny-a-liner, has been eliminated from a mass of flimsy on its probation, and for the most part rejected; […]”

“But the Q[uartermaster] has ballsed-up T3 patrol's fuel ration; instead of jerry cans we get "flimsies," the notorious four-gallon containers made of metal so thin you can practically puncture it with a fingernail. Flimsies come two to a case, packed in cardboard. Of seventy-six that Collier's crew take down from the Mack, twenty-one are leaking at the seams; eleven have drained half to nil.”

CEFR level