doohickey

doohickey

See also: doo-hickey

English

Alternative forms

• dohickey, do-hickey, do-hinky, doohinky

Etymology

First attested 1914, of uncertain origin, probably from doodad + hickey.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈduhɪki/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

doohickey (plural doohickeys)

1. A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall)

   What does this doohickey do?

Synonyms

• dohickey
• dojigger
• doodad, doodah
• gimmick
• gismo, gizmo
• gubbins
• hickey
• kajigger
• thingamabob, thingmabob, thingumabob, thingummabob
• thingamajig, thingmajig, thingumajig, thingummajig
• thingummy
• thingy
• whatsit
• whaddayacallit, whatchamacallit
• da kine (local Hawaiian slang)
• See also Thesaurus:thingy

Translations

a thing

Dutch: dinges (nl) m Finnish: vehje (fi), vekotin (fi), hilavitkutin (fi) French: truc (fr) m, machin (fr) m Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Dingsbums (de), Dingsda (de) Italian: coso (it) Maori: mea

Polish: wihajster (pl) m Portuguese: coisa (pt) f, negócio (pt) m Russian: штуко́вина (ru) f (štukóvina) Serbo-Croatian: stvarčica (sh) f Swedish: grunka (sv), mackapär (sv), manick (sv), mojäng (sv), pryl (sv), sak (sv), ting (sv), tingest (sv) Tok Pisin: samting (tpi)

Further reading

• Wikipedia article on placeholder names