doohickey

See also: doo-hickey

English

Alternative forms

dohickey, do-hickey, doo-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)

(slang, originally US) A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one does not know or cannot recall)
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thingy

What does this doohickey do?

Translations

a thing

Dutch: dinges (nl) m
Esperanto: umo (eo)
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, trem (pt) m, troço (pt) m, treco (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

Jonathon Green (2024) “dohickey n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
placeholder name on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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