whatchamacallit

doohickey

A name for a gadget or thing whose actual name is unknown or has been forgotten. Where's that doohickey? I need it to finish this repair. Hand me that doohickey or whatever it's called, will you?

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.

doohickey

verb
See doojigger

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:
  • doohickey
  • doohickie
  • doojigger
  • dufer
  • doofer
  • gazinkus
  • gazunkus
  • gizmo
  • doodad
  • widget
References in periodicals archive
In addition, Triple K does not follow the current trend of painting a widget black, naming it The Homeland Defense Extreme Tactical Whatchamacallit and selling it for 600 percent over what it really should cost.
Commitment to the community, future
Make up a name, say "Brian," who will be a fictional boy your friend danced with two summers ago at Camp Whatchamacallit. Go up to the guy you decided to approach, and ask him to settle a bet: "Some of us think you're this guy Brian, some think not.
Your no-choke summer-guy guide: he's hot? Here's how to act cool
Because I'd tied the whatchamacallit to the antenna.
The Scruff of the Neck
Not another 600- word whatchamacallit on that thingamajig called iPhone 4.
Giving the iPhone 4 a run for its money
If winter wants to cut in front of the trick-or-treaters, we have to shovel the whatchamacallit from the walks and brush the snowcaps from the jack-o'-lanterns - and try to snicker and chuckle as we do.
Seeing ghosts
Sending children out the day after one of their most-anticipated nights of the year would seem to smack more of Whatchamacallit than Halloween.
Boo; Selectmen in sticky situation over Halloween
It can help set new direction, expand possibility or use up that box of whatchamacallits you have been hoarding.
ART TRAP
We want them, but we don't really need all those whatchamacallits our friends seem to be enjoying according to their social posts.
Is our social media feed forcing us to spend more money?
"All those double and triple whatchamacallits. They make it look so easy."
Love lottery
It was a hot summer afternoon in Brooklyn, circa 1965, and my mother and I had just been to the hardware store, Doody's, which never failed to charm me both with its variety of products--everything from lumber and appliances, to hinges, tools, small metal whatchamacallits that seemed to have some astonishingly esoteric uses--and of course for its excremental name.
Movies are a mother to me...
"They hate that," says Blanken, fresh from a workshop with the whatchamacallits in L.A.
Getting the busters and keeping the boomers
Future inventors will enjoy the Doodad Dump, where materials donated by various local industries can be glued together to form an infinite variety of thingamajigs and whatchamacallits. Other exhibits-such as a climbing structure with movable bars, and a tunnel that can be reconfigured to zig here and zag there-just encourage creative physical play.
Tortillas to robots at San Jose's youthful museums
But did I discard a single one of these whatchamacallits? Of course not.
Yankee can't save himself from clutter
Jammed in tight were the accoutrements of this two-year-old - appliances, contraptions, doodads, doohickeys, paraphernalia and colourful provisions, to set up and supply her with the essential tackle, thingamajigs, and whatchamacallits that her little heart is fixed upon.
Down on the farm