brummagem

adj

1. (not-comparable)Cheap and showy; meretricious.

   “The unhappy man (who had cheated the sailors), innocent of danger, is seated on a grating with his combs, spy-glasses, necklaces, ribbons, and all the rest of his "Brummagem" trumpery, spread out before him.”

   “"My, my, my, my, my," said a voice from behind them, and the Baudelaire orphans turned to find Stephano standing there,...a look of brummagem surprise on his face. "Brummagem" is such a rare word for "fake" that even Klaus didn't know what it meant, but the children did not have to be told that Stephano was pretending to be surprised.”

   “The colloquial form of the city’s name thus entered the language as a contemptuous epithet. In 1861 the word was used to describe “The vulgar dandy, strutting along, with his Brummajem jewellry”; to “Birminhamize” was “to artificialize.””

2. (alt-of, not-comparable)Alternative letter-case form of brummagem (“cheap and showy”).

   “He was “great” (as he expressed it) with the Bloomer who kept the bar where their club was held, and whom he styled “a spiffy girl,” and who had been graciously pleased to accept of a pair of very Brummagem-looking earrings, set with paste diamonds, with which he had presented her.”

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Brummagem (“person from Birmingham”).
2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Brummagem (“counterfeit coin”).
3. A person from Birmingham.
4. (obsolete, slang)A counterfeit coin.

name

1. (UK, colloquial, dialectal)Nickname for Birmingham: a major city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England.