switcheroo

English

Alternative forms

switcharoo

Etymology

switch +‎ -eroo

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌswɪt͡ʃəˈɹuː/
Rhymes: -uː

Noun

switcheroo (plural switcheroos)

(informal, Canada, US) A sneaky, unexpected, or clever swap or exchange.
- 1951 April 30, “Business & Finance: Switcheroo”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2012-09-29:
  In a corporate merger, it is usually the big company that buys a smaller one. Last week Boston's up & coming Tracerlab, Inc. pulled a switcheroo.Tracerlab, which grossed only $1,700,000 last year, bought the much bigger ($8,000,000 gross) Kelley-Koett Mfg. Co.
- 1977 April 18, Don McGillivray, “Carter, true to form, pulls the ‘switcheroo’”, in Montreal Gazette‎, retrieved July 27, 2012, page 22:
  When you are dealing with American presidents, you always have to watch for the old switcheroo. Lyndon Johnson opposed Barry Goldwater's "extremism" on Vietnam, then proceeded to try to bomb Hanoi back into the stone age. Richard Nixon opposed price and wage controls, until he suddenly adopted them.
- 1997, J. J. King, “The Right Connections: Tea with Kevin Kelly”, in Mute, volume 1, number 8, ISSN 1356-7748:
  Elsewhere, it’s a ‘switcheroo’ ([Kevin] Kelly’s word, not mine) that will lend technology the working status of a vital force that, like ‘nature’, operates outside the reach of social imperatives.
- 2001 December 21, Jesse McKinley, “On Stage and Off”, in New York Times‎, retrieved July, 27 2012:
  The Manhattan Theater Club has pulled a switcheroo, delaying a planned production of Gone Home, by John Corwin, and replacing it with Four, by the 26-year-old playwright Christopher Shinn.

Usage notes

Sometimes used in the expression the old switcheroo.

Translations

clever swap

Japanese: ころころとかえること (korokoroto kaeru)
Russian: подме́на (ru) f (podména), мах (ru) m (max)
Spanish: cambiazo (es) m

Verb

switcheroo (third-person singular simple present switcheroos, present participle switcherooing, simple past and past participle switcherooed)

(transitive, uncommon) To swap or exchange surreptitiously.
- 2013, Nancy Krulik, All's Fair‎, Penguin, →ISBN:
  Another day, the magic wind came and switcherooed Katie into a hairdresser named Sparkle.