Flummox, Flummocks, or Flummux, verb. (colloquial).—1. To perplex, dodge, abash, or silence; to victimize; to best (q.v.); to disappoint. Also conflummox. To flummox (or conflummox) by the lip = to outslang (q.v.), or talk down; to flummox the coppers = to dodge the police; to flummox the old Dutch = to cheat one’s wife, etc. For synonyms, see Flabbergast. 2. (theatrical).—To confuse, to queer (q.v.). Cf., Corpse. 3. (American).—Used in the passive sense = to abandon a purpose; to give in; to die. Subs. (American University).—A bad recitation; a failure. Flummoxed, ppl. adj. (thieves’ and general).—1. Spoilt; ruined; drunk; sent down (q.v.); boshed (q.v.); defeated; disappointed; silenced; floored (q.v.). 1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiii., p. 283. ‘And my ’pinion is, Sammy, that if your governor don’t prove an alleybi, he’ll be what the Italians call reg’larly flummoxed, and that’s all about it.’ 1840. Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 170. So many of the men I know Were flummoxed at the last great go. 1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus, p. 17. I felt flummox’d in a brown (study understood) old fellow. 1864. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 742. ‘I say, Tom.’ ‘Yes, mate.’ ‘If I should have a fit heave a bucket of water over me.’ Tom was too astonished, or, as he expressed it, conflummoxed to make any reply. 1883. Daily Telegraph, 25 July, p. 2, col. 1. I’ll give Tom his due, and say of him that for flummoxing a cuss (Custom House Officer) or working the weed, I don’t know any one he couldn’t give a chalk to and beat ’em. 1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. I’m fair flummoxed, and singing, ‘Oh, what a surprise!’ Flummocky, adj. (colloquial).—Out of place; in bad taste. 1891. F. H. Groome. Blackwood’s Mag., March, p. 319. ‘It is a nice solemn dress,’ she said, as she lifted a piece to examine it more closely; ‘there’s nothing flummocky about it.’ Flummut, subs. (vagrants’).—A month in prison. See flummoxed. For synonyms, see Dose. 1889. Answers, 20th July, p. 121, col. 2. If you want to get rid of an importunate tramp tell him to ‘stow his patter,’ or you will get him a flummut. 1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. He [patterer] mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. I give one or two instances.... ‘Flummut,’ sure of a month in quod. Flump, verb. (colloquial).—To fall, put, or be set, down with violence or a thumping noise. Onomatopœic. Also to come down with a Flump. Cf., Plump and Cachunk. 1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, ch. v. Chairs were flumped down on the floor. 1865. H. Kingsley, The Hillyars and the Burtons, ch. lxii. Before my mother had been a week in the partly-erected slab-house, the women began to come in, to flump down into a seat and tell her all about it. Flunk, subs. (American colloquial).—1. An idler, a Loafer (q.v.) or Lawrence (q.v.).