trim-tram

plural trim-trams

1. obsoleteA worthless trifle.

   A trym tram for an horſe myll it were a nyſe thyng / Deyntes for dammoyſels, Chaffer far fet […]

   c. 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott

   2 more examples

   Our consciences, now, quite unclogged from the fear of his vain terriculaments and rattle-bladders; and from the fondness of his trimtrams and gugaws

   1547, William Patten, The Expedition into Scotland, as published in 1895, Edward Arber, An English Garner, volume III, page 70

   Head, body, taile and all of a redde Herring you ſhall haue of mee, if that vvill pleaſe you, or if that vvill not pleaſe you, ſtay till Eſter Terme, and then vvith the anſvvere to the Trim Tram, I vvill make you laugh your hearts out.

   1599, [Thomas] Nashe, “To His Readers, Hee Cares Not What They Be”, in Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC