Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick, especially a mechanism for the secret and dishonest control of gambling apparatus.
  • noun An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget.
  • noun An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project.
  • noun A significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.
  • noun A small object whose name does not come readily to mind.
  • transitive verb To add gimmicks to; clutter with gadgets or attention-getting details. Often used with up.
  • transitive verb To change or affect by means of a gimmick.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A trick or device used to reach some end.
  • noun A clever ploy or strategy.
  • verb To rig or set up with a trick or device.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something unspecified whose name is either forgotten or not known
  • noun any clever maneuver
  • noun a drawback or difficulty that is not readily evident

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gimmick.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.