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Flam vs Flay - What's the difference?

flam | flay |

As nouns the difference between flam and flay

is that flam is flame while flay is a fright; a scare.

As a verb flay is

to cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening) or flay can be to strip skin off.

flam

English

Etymology 1

17th century; from flim-flam, Flimflam / Claptrap], [http://www.word-detective.com The Word Detective, 2009–04–13 itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse

Noun

(en noun)
  • A freak or whim.
  • A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion.
  • * All pretences to the contrary are nothing but cant and cheat, flam and delusion. 1692
  • * South
  • A perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity.

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.
  • * South
  • God is not to be flammed off with lies.

    Etymology 2

    Imitative.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Two taps (a grace note followed by a full-volume tap) played very close together in order to sound like one slightly longer note.
  • Derived terms
    * flam paradiddle, flamadiddle

    References

    Anagrams

    * ----

    flay

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) flayen, flaien, fleien, from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (Yorkshire) * (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l) (Scotland)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).
  • To frighten; scare; terrify.
  • To be fear-stricken.
  • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fright; a scare.
  • Fear; a source of fear; a formidable matter; a fearsome or repellent-looking individual.
  • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) flean from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • to strip skin off
  • to lash
  • Synonyms
    * (remove the skin of) fleece, flense, skin

    Anagrams

    *