gimmick

UK/ˈɡɪm.ɪk/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,061 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: gimmicks

A gimmick is a trick or device used to attract attention. A marketing gimmick, just a gimmick, a gimmick to sell papers.

It is always dismissive: calling something a gimmick says it is a device rather than a real improvement. The word came from American carnival and conjuring slang in the 1920s, where it meant the hidden thing that made a trick work.

Definitions of gimmick

1noungimmickA trick or device used to attract attention.B2+
“The free plastic toy was just a gimmick to get children to buy the cereal.”

gimmick is a device.

Where it comes from

American, from the 1920s, of unknown origin, first meaning the concealed device that worked a trick.

unknown. Possibly a rough anagram of magic or from gimme.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

gimmick in the wild

Gimmicks are occasionally viewed negatively, but some seemingly trivial gimmicks of the past have evolved into useful, permanent features.
Gimmick
A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes when a wrestler manifests both heel and face traits, such as Randy Orton's viper gimmick.
Gimmick (professional wrestling)
A wrestler may use more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion they are working for.
Gimmick (professional wrestling)
The team used other gimmicks before they joined the WWF and had a gimmick change in the WWF shortly before disbanding.
Godwinns
In June 2010, Kiyoshi became the third man to use the gimmick.
Suicide (wrestling)

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary