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gimmick

[gim-ik]

noun

an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.

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.

a hidden mechanical device by which a magician works a trick or a gambler controls a game of chance.

Electronics Informal. a capacitor formed by intertwining two insulated wires.

verb (used with object)

to equip or embellish with unnecessary features, especially in order to increase salability, acceptance, etc. (often followed by up): to gimmick up a sports car with chrome and racing stripes.

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Gimmick is always a great word to know.

So is impedance. Does it mean:

total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit

time taken for current to reach maximum value

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verb (used without object)

to resort to gimmickry, especially habitually.

Origin:
1925–30, Americanism; origin uncertain

Related forms

gim·mick·er, noun

gim·mick·y, adjective

un·gim·mick·y, adjective

Synonyms
1. stunt, plan, ruse, ploy; angle.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To gimmick

Example Sentences

The theme of today's puzzle is great, and the gimmick made me grin.

If a film needs this type of technological gimmick to be successful it must be a pretty bad film.

It was great to find an authentic ethnic neighborhood because that's sort of a gimmick for every city now.

EXPAND

The theme of today's puzzle is great, and the gimmick made me grin.

If a film needs this type of technological gimmick to be successful it must be a pretty bad film.

It was great to find an authentic ethnic neighborhood because that's sort of a gimmick for every city now.

Over the next two decades, he tried every marketing gimmick he could think of.

He told me how he planned to open a small business when he retired in three years, one with a fail-safe gimmick.

Perhaps the next macroeconomic gimmick may be distributing tranquilizers in recessions.

The best gimmick a restaurant can use is to serve excellent food, hopefully with efficient service.

Thus, the odd gimmick proves to be a shrewd strategy.

If this cannot be done, then repealing any law is simply a gimmick.

To stand out in a commodity market, a new digicam needs a gimmick.

It's about as unlikely a promotional gimmick as you can find.

The idea is proven but this whole media topic, which is mostly how it manifests, is a gimmick.

Sometimes a dumb gimmick can actually be a great idea, too.

The telephone booth in the farm's name is no gimmick.

Or having your children watching commercials over and over about the newest kids targeted gimmick toy.

The gimmick here is that you can actually create your own character when it begins, by picking a comical head and body.

The chart was a promotional gimmick issued by the beneficiaries of the spending.

It was not a gimmick at all, but an enlightened fix.

The other gimmick is a strap that wraps around a car-headrest to keep the kids entertained.

The fear is that a new department is a gimmick designed to punish some people and/or reward others.

Talking about a quick move to the euro may be a good gimmick for politicians, but the practical difficulties are huge.

It does appear that each town is looking for a gimmick that will bring in the groups.

Reject their single minded luddite remedy of simply stopping the use of energy as the fund raising gimmick it.

It should not be dismissed as a gimmick or even as a way to.

The gimmick is that the entire operating system runs in a.

There are others who are not so talented and have to rely on a gimmick.

The pageant was started as a gimmick to stretch out the summer season.

The first gimmick is obvious: it's a bottle opener.

It's hard to know if the trend is a smart-aleck social satire, interactive performance art, a diet gimmick or all three.

But maybe this is a gimmick whose time has come: religious services via mobile.

With dozens of cosmetics companies battling for those few precious inches in your makeup case, everyone needs a gimmick.

Scantily clad women roamed the hallways: another public relations gimmick to rise about the din.

Adidas executives say the shoe is no gadget-dependent gimmick.

The only people who would be disguised by such a gimmick are those who are already unknown.

Now the struggling book industry, eager to tap into mainstream tastes, has come up with its own populist gimmick.

As you can see from the cinema-goers' reactions, the smoke-and-mirrors gimmick went down well.

It also saw fit to add a gimmick to the depth of field preview:.

But this doesn't seem to be much more than a gimmick.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

gimmick (ˈɡɪmɪk)

—n
1.	something designed to attract extra attention, interest, or publicity
2.	any clever device, gadget, or stratagem, esp one used to deceive
3.	chiefly (US) a device or trick of legerdemain that enables a magician to deceive the audience

[C20: originally US slang, of unknown origin]

'gimmickry

—n

'gimmicky

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gimmick

1926 (in Maine & Grant's "Wise-Crack Dictionary," which defines it as "a device used for making a fair game crooked"), Amer.Eng., perhaps an alteration of gimcrack, or an anagram of magic.

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Matching Quote

"You may well ask how I expect to assert my privacy by resorting to the outrageous publicity of being one's actual self on paper. There's a possibility of it working if one chooses the terms, to wit: outshouting image-gimmick America through a quietly desperate search for self."

-Kate Millett

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