gimmick
Americannoun
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an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.
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a concealed, usually devious aspect or feature of something, as a plan or deal.
An offer that good must have a gimmick in it somewhere.
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a hidden mechanical device by which a magician works a trick or a gambler controls a game of chance.
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Electronics Informal. a capacitor formed by intertwining two insulated wires.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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something designed to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity
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any clever device, gadget, or stratagem, esp one used to deceive
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a device or trick of legerdemain that enables a magician to deceive the audience
Other Word Forms
- gimmicker noun
- gimmickry noun
- gimmicky adjective
- ungimmicky adjective
Etymology
Origin of gimmick
An Americanism dating back to 1925–30; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The firms that treat prompting AI as something to become fluent in — not a gimmick or tertiary function — will win.
From MarketWatch
"It's not just a gimmick, he buys into what the club means and what it means to the wider city," Swansea chief executive Tom Gorringe told BBC Wales.
From Barron's
"It's not just a gimmick, he buys into what the club means and what it means to the wider city," he told BBC Wales.
From BBC
The success of that trick, a last-minute pivot, was emblematic of the whole project: What could have been a gimmick actually produced a sophisticated and affecting piece of theater.
She admits she’s fallen for tech hype before, calling the NFT craze of the early 2020s “a gimmick and a joke.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
