Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Informal An unnamed gadget or trinket.
Wiktionary
- n. A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any object, usually a tool or other device, whose name is forgotten, or not known.
WordNet 3.0
- n. something unspecified whose name is either forgotten or not known
Etymologies
- First attested 1914, of uncertain origin, probably from doodad + hickey. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps doo(dad) + hickey. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Get Help: Need to replace a part of your toilet but have no idea how to describe it to the person at the hardware store without using the word doohickey?”
“I believe "doohickey" is the correct technical term for that particular control.”
“Training ones either have a plastic or rubbery doohickey attached at the apex of the chopsticks or are actually attached.”
“So, here we have President Malcom J. Roebuck telling me, with a look of dead-eyed seriousness, that I can make $25 to $100 per hour by making and selling "metal pin-back badges" made with his $35 button crimper doohickey.”
“(Assuming the embedded doohickey works; it seems to be a bit temperamental right now.)”
“And, no, I don't know why the embedded doohickey cuts off the last few seconds of the song.”
“That's due to my genius brother-in-law Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, the leader of the FF, and his universal translator doohickey.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Brenner: "Flame Off!": Hosni Mubarak and the Human Torch
“Mine definitely has the musical greetings-card-style doohickey installed as Chris and Allison and meself agreed.”
“Anyway, I stuck it up on the fileshare site I normally use, for this chap to download, so I thought I may as well, punt one of the embedded doohickey things up here, for anyone what's cracked enough to want a copy, or who has a spare thirty-five frickin minutes to listen to me play at being a pirate.”
“The words she spoke afterward were even more hurtful than the concussion Don might have incurred if that desktop doohickey had actually made contact.”
The Washington Post: 'Mad Men': Who was this week's empowered heroine -- Allison or Peggy?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘doohickey’.
-
Americanism
American words
finest, fast food, acclimate, aluminum, alphabetize, airplane, affirmative action, arugula, backhoe, bangs, base board, bayou and 162 more...
-
250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
-
Nincompoopery
Words that clatter and tumble
nincompoop, pettyfoggery, gaberlunzie, cattywampus, weisenheimer, katzenjammer, hecklephone, loblolly, carriwitchet, flibbertyjibbet, hornswoggle, thimblerigger and 161 more...
-
Sounds often heard during a search fo...
um, er, hmm, ah, well, �?��?��?�, erm, uh, um-um-um, ehm, anu, gizmo and 11 more...
-
Words
teeter, headlong, reprobate, canard, ersatz, prevaricate, trenchant, minatory, fatuous, stultify, vitiate, fulminate and 135 more...
-
nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
-
Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
-
Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
-
EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
-
Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
-
persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
-
Hold My Place
. . . apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,
Such as--What d'ye call him--Thing'em-bob, and likewise--Never-mind,
and 'St--'st--'st--and What's-his-name, and also You-know-who-- <...whatchamacallit, thingamajig, doodad, doohickey, doojiggy, gizmo, whosis, whatsis, thingamabob, gadget, widget, jobby and 109 more...
-
RabidCow's Words
piledrive, schism, poignant, garrote, reflex, fortitude, constitution, dexterity, charisma, nemesis, machiavellian, poop and 128 more...
-
jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
-
Welcome to Tchotchke Land
gewgaw, gimcrack, trinket, knickknack, bauble, kickshaw, whatnot, frippery, trifle, frou-frou, doodad, bric-a-brac and 5 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for doohickey.

jmjarmstrong JM offers the warning - beware of oojahs, thingumabobs, doohickies and whatchamacallits as objects without proper names are never to be trusted. Feb 1, 2009
slumry wotsit Jul 25, 2007