fee-faw-fum

English

Interjection

fee-faw-fum

1. A nonsensical exclamation attributed to giants and ogres.

   Synonym: fee-fi-fo-fum

Translations

exclamation attributed to giants and ogres

• Scottish Gaelic: fiù fomha fomhagraich, hì hò hù huagaich

Noun

fee-faw-fum (plural fee-faw-fums)

1. A nonsensical exclamation attributed to giants and ogres.
   • 1908, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 102, page 823:

     The kindly fee-faw-fums of childhood, how many delicious shivers we owe them; the Things that stood behind doors, that trooped into the church when the congregation went out, that lurked in closet corners and under the bed […]

2. (archaic, by extension) Any expression calculated to impose upon the timid and ignorant.
   • J. H. Newman

     impudent fee-faw-fums

   • 1921, J. H. Tilden, Food: Its Influence As a Factor in Disease and Health, page 153:

     One of the most successful fee-faw-fums worked off on the prospective patients of mine for the past twenty-five years has been: “If you go to Tilden, he will starve you to death.”