Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An imaginary gnomelike creature to whom mechanical problems, especially in aircraft, are attributed.
- n. A maker of mischief.
Wiktionary
- n. A mythical creature reputed to be mechanically inclined and mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery.
- n. by extension Any mysterious, unknown source of trouble or mischief.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous
Etymologies
- Possibly from Old English grëmian ("to vex", "to anger"), related to German grämen and Swedish gräma ("to grieve"). (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps blend of Irish gruaimín, bad-tempered little fellow (from Middle Irish gruaim, gloom, surliness) and goblin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When the gremlin is kneeling on the wing prying up the panel you can see the actor's shoes under his gremlin costume.”
“Her gremlin is her twin self, who talks to her in the second person, tells her to play it safe and not stick out from the crowd.”
“[Just a side note: Mohawk was only created because Stripe was so popular and there needed to be a Mohawk-stylin 'gremlin in the second one.] i actually liked the smart one in part 2 cause he was kinda funny. or the one that dressed as a female”
“During WWII, EMI was commonly known as a gremlin who would take over the electrical system of a fighter plane wrecking havoc on the control systems, especially during thunderstorms or highly charged atmosphere.”
“I just wanna say. .quick, because the gremlin is starting to wake up … oops, she’s grumbling.”
“When Anthony Overfield rides his motorcycle, he carries two passengers on board: so-called gremlin bells.”
“He is Gremlin Gus— almost as if the gremlin is an imaginary dark alter ego of the pilot who has first seen him.”
“May 20, 2008 at 10:50 am i tawht a gremlin was a car?”
Hmmm…the zebra looks good, - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“The emotional, irrational part is the chimp while the gremlin is the negative belief or behaviour which has the potential to inhibit performance.”
“In indonesia the brits did the same thing, use the Japanese soldiers to maintain law and order in Indonesia, of course it sort of failed with the battle of surabaya wu lah, it was called the gremlin force. can check on the net. i think the rearmed japanese killed at least a few hundred vietminhs。”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gremlin’.
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Brand Theft Auto
A marque list for cars--models or companies who've used common words as their name.
explorer, navigator, frontier, mustang, quest, cougar, sidekick, legend, legacy, ranger, voyager, civic and 266 more...
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Mythical Beings
mermaid, manticore, fairy, brownie, dwarf, elf, leprechaun, selkie, gremlin, puck, pixie, genie and 97 more...
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Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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A List of Mythical Proportions
All of these things exist, I swear!
unicorn, pegasus, cyclops, yeti, abominable snowman, bigfoot, phoenix, thunderbird, sea serpent, ogre, grue, troll and 138 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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fabula's Words
fabulas, pasadizo, laberinto, amazónica, libritos, manzana, ilustración, ilustraciones, trazos, tiralíneas, eufenismo, cinemateca and 217 more...
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Faintheart's Words
onomatopoeia, no, terrafactive, word, faint, heart, joy, quixotic, karla, half, amp, tardis and 181 more...
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Fictional beasties
elf, gnome, dwarf, sprite, troll, fairy, nymph, imp, brownie, sasquatch, yeti, wookiee and 574 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (G)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
gable, gaia, gala, galaxy, gallows, gambol, garden, garland, garnet, gauntlet, gazebo, gazelle and 105 more...
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Word Gems
foist, coercion, abecedism, abiectic, abigeus, abiogenesis, ablaut, thunderstruck, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, filagree, blotto and 196 more...
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How do you like Kipling?
Words which fit the joke format: "How do you like X-in(g)? I don't know, I've never X-ed".
kipling, duckling, fingerling, groundling, chickling, chitterling, changeling, gosling, yearling, hireling, inkling, quisling and 98 more...
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oldecat's Words
noncommutative, morphodynamics, ferrywoman, circumcircle, acceleration, inactivity, biodiesel, corrosion, quadrilogy, imprimitivity, normalizer, teleosemantics and 240 more...
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librarygoblin's words
crystal, ghost, mist, snow, labyrinth, citadel, tomb, mystery, arcane, conundrum, echo, dynamo and 389 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gremlin.
ruzuzu Well, for myself, I'd prefer a definition that very clearly states when it is appropriate to allow them access to to food, water, and sunlight. Sep 20, 2011
bilby It just seems to me that if I asked a layman, in a quiet moment when he wasn't busy laying, for a definition I probably wouldn't get the 'especially in aircraft' bit. Sep 20, 2011
ruzuzu Oh--wait. Do you object to the form of the definition? Sep 20, 2011
ruzuzu Wasn't it? I thought it was some pilot joke from WWII or something. Sep 20, 2011
bilby Was AHD written by pilots or is it suggesting the origin of that usage (definition 1) was in aviation? Sep 20, 2011
treeseed Some lady who is into Matrix Energetics told me she saw a gremlin sitting with a needle and thread, sewing and repairing my morphic field and then painting it over with a big brush and applying some clear sealant. Well, that is a nice helpful gremlin apparently. ;) Sep 7, 2008
vanishedone Boggarts, poltergeists... It's a tough one. I'll bet they have bragging competitions about this. 'Well, I'm Changeling Orchestration Co-ordinator for Upper Taunton...' Mar 9, 2008
yarb Do you think a gremlin is more or less michievious than a sprite? What about a pooka? I would have thought pookas were pretty darned michievious. Mar 9, 2008
vanishedone Looking at the WordNet definition, I wonder what the accepted scale of fairy mischievousness might be... Mar 9, 2008