Used to refer to or address a person or thing whose name one has forgotten, does not know, or does not wish to mention.
‘I'm not altogether sure what happened to these pellets - I assume they got shipped out elsewhere and turned in to all manner of plastic thingamabobs, doobries and wotsits - but that didn't really matter.’
‘A bit of a favourite of mine from the 1910s is ‘oojiboo’, which meant a thingumajig, a whatsits name, something you can't remember the name of.’
‘How do these self-heating stick-on thingumajigs compare to the good old hot water bottle?’
‘I considered setting up one of those nifty 24-hour timer thingamabobs that make the lights go on and off when they should.’
‘I prefer to stroll and just watch the people on the streets and the thingamabobs along the way.’
‘Today started off with me losing my balance while heading for a seat on the train and smacking my head hard on the thingamabob that juts out above the window.’
‘I lingered around watching a thingamabob about JFK's administration on TV, then crashed.’
‘The step up from these are the headphones that are a plastic thingamabob that wrap across the top of your head, not unlike the sort you get free when you buy a cd player.’
‘My head hurts a little from hitting the wooden thingamabob.’
‘Then I pushed on the thingamabob to flush the toilet, but there was no pressure.’
‘We believe a sight or a fancy thingamabob added to the weapons systems will be a cure-all.’
‘Give people a reason to respond - 10% off in the next 24 hours for example, or a free doodad or thingamabob.’
‘I found this really cute kinda 70's-looking shirt online a couple of weeks ago - it's sort of pale green with white stripes and this nifty ring thingamabob in front.’
‘He related how he'd recently experienced a spot of technical bother when using his electronic key-fob thingamabob to open the car door of his nippy runabout.’
‘Let's get one of these desks, and put it over there in front of the big bench thingamabob, then we can put a filing cabinet in front of that.’
‘Wallace pointed to the spiral shaped thingamabob in her left pocket.’
‘I have the comments thingamajig up and running but few people use it.’
‘You'll find no winged doohickeys or portable thingamajigs here.’
‘Don't even get me started on all of the cool little doo-dads and thingamajigs.’
‘It's a massive thing, taking up two galleries with 36 works ranging from videos and photography to some paintings, some sculptural object thingamajigs and a couple of lovely cyanotypes.’
Origin
Mid 18th century arbitrary extension of earlier thingum (from thing + a meaningless suffix). Compare with thingamajig.
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