Dictionary

doodad en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈduːdæd/

Etymology

Unknown; attested since the 1880s. Compare earlier daud (“a piece of something”), later doohickey (“a thing (whose name one cannot recall)”), dialectal dad, dadge (“a large piece, chunk”).

Meanings

1. Used to refer to something whose name one cannot recall: an unspecified device, gadget, part, or thing.
   • Of course I eat an apple every evening—an apple a day keeps the doctor away—but still, you ought to have more prunes, and not all these fancy doodads. 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter I, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, section IV, page 11:
   • The room was too big, the ceiling was too high, the doors were too tall, and the white carpet that went from wall to wall looked like a fresh fall of snow at Lake Arrowhead. There were full-length mirrors and crystal doodads all over the place. 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep:
   • The reason is that not all bomblets explode as they’re meant to, and thousands of small, unexploded grenades can lie around for years, even decades, before somebody — often, a child spotting a brightly colored, battery-size doodad on the ground — accidentally sets it off. 2023 July 10, The Editorial Board, “The Flawed Moral Logic of Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • My mom has a clever doodad for peeling oranges.

Forms

Synonyms

kajigger · whachacallit · shebang · thingmy · whatsit · dojigger · thingum · gadget · oojamaflip · foobar · doojigger · thingummajig · thingymabob · dealy · jawn · doohickey · geegaw · hickey · doohinkus · bizzo · gizmo · Sorted alphabetically · rigamajig · thingamajigger · wotsit · whachamacallit · doodad · wossname · stuff · doohickus · whosit · thingumabob · wossisname · doodah · whatsaname · whatchamahoozie · MacGuffin · yokibus · yoke · whiff-whaff · frammis · frobnitz · jobby · thingmajig · kludge · jobber · thingabob · dealie · foo · doovalacky · widget · Sorted by number of Google hits · bazinga · thingummabob · thingamajig · whatsitsname · whatdoyoucallit · thingamajiggy · thing · junk · thingie · joint · dingus · chingadera · whosiewhatsit · thingumajig · jigger · dongle · whatchamacallit · thingmabob · dinglehopper · gingambob · doohinkey · thingy · thingymajig · whatdyecallem · thingummy · thingamabob · doodah · hootenanny · doofer · gubbins · whatsis · thingamafuck · ting · gewgaw · whatnot · dohickey · jimbang · gimmick · thingummyjig · whatchacallit · gismo · hodad · doo-hickey · gingumbob · doober · affair · whaddayacallit · thingamabobber · thingo