gimmick (n.)

  1. a drawback or difficulty that is not readily evident; it sounds good but whats the catch?

    [ Syn: catch ]

  2. something unspecified whose name is either forgotten or not known; she eased the ball-shaped doodad back into its socket; there may be some great new gizmo around the corner that you will want to use

    [ Syn: doodad , doohickey , doojigger , gizmo , gismo , gubbins , thingamabob , thingumabob , thingmabob , thingamajig , thingumajig , thingmajig , thingummy , whatchamacallit , whatchamacallum , whatsis , widget ]

  3. any clever maneuver; he would stoop to any device to win a point; it was a great sales gimmick; a cheap promotions gimmick for greedy businessmen

    [ Syn: device , twist ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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