thingamabob

thingamabob

Some tool, gadget, or other such implement the proper name for which is unknown or unremembered. A: "What is that thingamabob over there?" B: "That's a power coupler. Don't touch it." It looks like the signal is controlled by this joystick-looking thingamabob.

whatchamacallit

Any thing the name of which is not known or cannot be remembered. Hand me that whatchamacallit over there. He said the machine will generate… whatchamacallit… electrostatic potential energy, something like that.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

whatchamacallit

(ˈʍətʃəməˈkɑlɪt)
n. a name for a person or thing whose real name has been forgotten or is being avoided. I lost my—you know—my whatchamacallit—my watch!
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

whatchamacallit

Something whose name is not known or has been forgotten. A slangy alteration of “what you may call it,” it dates from the first quarter of the twentieth century. For example, “He’s got that new gadget on his car, a whatchamacallit—oh, a GPS.” Similar if not quite synonymous terms are doohickey and thingamabob, dating from about the same time. For example, “The Digital Book System . . . a doohickey slightly bigger than a cassette box—that stores the equivalent of 10 Bibles” (Newsweek, December 7, 1992).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • thingmabob
  • thingmajig
  • thingy
  • thingamajig
  • gazinkus
  • gazunkus
  • doofer
  • doojigger
  • dufer
  • doohickie
References in periodicals archive
"It's not exactly a thingamabob," I said, "more of a thingamajig."
Doohickeys befuddling what's-his-face
Other profiles feel gluttonous, like Linda Rodin's--creator of "cultish elixir" Rodin Olio Lusso--whose over-the-top piles of "thingamabobs" look like the Little Mermaid's collection of souvenirs.
Tastemakers and groundbreakers
(2) Whirrs, Cogs and Thingamabobs: A World of Wacky Gadgets is a collection of quirky everyday items, some salvaged from rubbish tips.
3 things to do this weekend
This led to a collection of 1,500 gadgets and "thingamabobs".
Historical gadgets go on display
Goldbarth-an avid collector of thingamabobs, doohickeys, and what-have-yous-doesn't relegate his love of pop culture to his home.
Violets, you say? Don't be fooled
For most people of my generation, today's technology gadgets, gizmos and thingamabobs are wonderful--and frightening--advances.
Timing is everything
Why should we use these newfangled thingamabobs on the
Proceedings, 108th annual meeting Medical Library Association, Inc. Chicago, IL May 16-21, 2008
We do not see the normal collection of ghastly thingamabobs that a "witch" would collect.
Clowning around in James Purdy's: The Paradise Circus
On April 17th and 19th, the University of South Florida's (USF) Kopp Engineering Building was abuzz--abuzz with the bleeps, buzzes and thumps of gadgets, gizmos, and thingamabobs as students, professors, and the curious assembled to check out the newest crop of brain children birthed by the next generation of the school's mechanical engineers.
Students pave the way for greater accessibility: University of South Florida students test their engineering mettle
The result is a collection of more than 400 weird and wonderful objects, many of which were featured in his first book "Eccentric Contraptions and Amazing Gadgets, Gizmos and Thingamabobs".
Anitque: Book of weird gadget collections MAURICE COLLINS is a passionate collector of gadgets
See how he settles into his stench and ruin (with his li'l motors, his li'l machines, his li'l thingamajigs, his li'l thingamabobs).
Jean Senac's Myth of Mediterranean Semen
But she also says she's busy and "doesn't have a lot of time to try new-fangled thingamabobs."
Go with the flow
A self pro claimed flea market hound, Brachman scours the concrete fields of Manhattan for dusty cook books, little pink do-dads and pastel green thingamabobs; true relics of the 50s and 60s, a time when soda fountains and ice cream cones were all the rage.
Hands together teeth apart
Even the black plastic packaging used to safeguard hardware from being damaged gets a new use thanks to a local operation that sells castoff industrial and commercial "thingamabobs" as craft components to teachers, day care centers and Scout troops.
Westmark Makes Molehills Out of Mountains
Sal Monella has been hired to fill a vacancy in the ABCDE subassembly cell for a manufacturing company that produces thingamabobs. This cell is composed of five physically linked operations.
Is skill-based pay for you?