noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one does not know or cannot recall) slang

   "What does this doohickey do?"

2. 2
   something unspecified whose name is either forgotten or not known wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

dojiggerdoodadgimmickgismogizmogubbins

Example

More examples

"Ah, crap. I dropped my doohickey into the sink."

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.