Word.ws English Dictionary

whim-wham

whim-wham noun: a whimsical object; a trinket.

Noun

whim-wham (plural whim-whams)

  1. (obsolete) A whimsical object; a trinket.
    • They′ll pull ye all to pieces for your Whim-whams,
      Your Garters and your Gloves,1640, John Fletcher, James Shirley, “The Night Walker, or The Little Thief”, in The works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, volume 2, published 1750, page 101
  2. A whim or fancy.
    • And trust me, gentlefolk, his are the whim-whams of a courteous gentleman full of most excellent qualities ; honourable in his disposition, independent in his sentiments, and of unbounded good-nature, as may be seen through all his works.1807 April 18, “Anthony Evergreen” (Washington Irving), Salmagundi, or The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others, No. VIII, 1834, The Complete Works of Washington Irving in...
  3. (in plural) A state of nervous anxiety.
    • But that wasn't what gave him the whim-whams so bad here. In the clearing, no more than ten feet away, stood a little stone cherub atop a fancy grave marker maybe three feet high.2009, Derryl Murphy, William Shunn, Cast a Cold Eye

whim-wham meaning in Tamil

whim-wham in Tamil

வியப்பு ஒப்பனைப்பொருள்

Forms of whim-wham

pluralwhim-whams
alternative formwhimwham

Origin of whim-wham

Uncertain; perhaps from North Germanic (compare Old Norse hvima (“to let the eyes wander”), Norwegian kvima (“to flutter”)), but in any case ultimately sound-symbolic/a fanciful reduplication (compare flim-flam).

Words formed from whim-wham

Questions about whim-wham

What does whim-wham mean?
Whim-wham means a whimsical object; a trinket.
What is whim-wham in Tamil?
Whim-wham in Tamil is வியப்பு ஒப்பனைப்பொருள். See Whim-wham meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is whim-wham?
Whim-wham is a noun.
What is the plural of whim-wham?
The plural of whim-wham is whim-whams.

Words near whim-wham in the dictionary

  1. whilom
  2. whilome
  3. whilst
  4. whim
  5. WHIM syndrome
  6. whim-wham
  7. whim-wham for a goose's bridle
  8. whim-whams
  9. whimberries
  10. whimberry
  11. whimble

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whim-wham (page history and authors); whim-wham (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “whim-wham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whim-wham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.