Definitions
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Examples
“In The Bank Job, the macguffin was a set of photos supposedly showing the Princess having a beach affair; given the circumstances, the man involved would likely have been Bindon.”
“It is what Alfred Hitchcock called a "macguffin," a central plot-moving device.”
“Tales' attempts to bridge the gap by making the "macguffin" into a semi-sentient protagonist; in theory, we'll work up sympathy for Simon Garth and his plight as a zombie, enough so to get us through stories that jump from city to city as the amulet changes hands.”
“Oz, I don’t think the aliens really qualify as a macguffin, that is really more a vehicle to drive the plot in thrillers and tends to be ambiguous.”
“The great Alfred Hitchcock used the word "macguffin" to describe that object, the pursuit of which drives the plot of the story forward.”
“Wow, I had never heard of the word "macguffin" until today .... and I have encountered it twice.”
“An ensemble cast of gangsters, lowlifes, thugs, and junkies are all after a “macguffin” (this time: a painting we never actually the face of).”
“First, and less importantly, the Big Secret proves to be a macguffin.”
“However, I believe it is the subtle way in which Cameron introduces this to the audience that it works for the audience as a believable macguffin despite the name.”
“Ironically, “RocknRolla” had a b-i-i-i-g macguffin: a painting that drives the entire plot (and we never get to see), and it still sucked.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘macguffin’.
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slackagogo's Words
agelast, aggiornamento, zaftig, wowserism, vox barbara, verbigeration, tchotchke, tautology, sycophant, spoonerism, solipsism, sobriquet and 288 more...
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Words to Try to Use in Colloquial Spe...
surquedry, equivocate, putative, turgid, congeries, irrefragable, quiddity, zaftig, flagitious, bloviate, perfidy, compendious and 227 more...
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TheLastGoodNameLeft
The Last Good Words Left
ephemera, gammon, errata, ellipses, octopi, heteronormative, polyp, intersectionality, theses, california, halfback, fullback and 555 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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The Spectacle
DISTRACT, STARE, CONSUME
(repeat)gongoozler, television, sporting events, blockbuster, alienation, situationist, technocapitalism, media extravaganza, sex scandal, hypnotic behavior, fantastic visions, prime time and 164 more...
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Words of the Times
Words discovered while reading The New York Times, each with a citation from the paper.
testilying, ghost talk, apneist, solastalgia, izakaya, hooker, telectroscope, airflyte, phomance, bromhidrosis, stinky feet, cupping and 482 more...
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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...
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On Fillum
Movie stuff.
macguffin, rupert pupkin, mis-en-scene, plains of heaven, spotlight, production, roll, ausploitation, acousmetre, idiot plot, avant-garde, drive-in and 22 more...
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zantony's Words
automat, apoplexy, carnival, baccanalia, erstwhile, moxie, panoply, esoteric, aplomb, widdershins, malfeasance, chthonic and 13 more...
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pickwick's Words
globule, context, glossolalia, squee, gerrymander, verbing, flagellate, leathery, sepulchral, squiggly, schwa, zyzygy and 40 more...
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lobsterphone's list
hapax legomenon, macguffin, vermicular, holy see, scourge, auto-da-fe, diorama, maelstrom, curmudgeon, meandering, helter skelter, topsy turvy and 5 more...
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dewb's Words
disambiguate, apropos, sanctimonious, ostensibly, disingenuous, rad, macguffin, a priori, rigger, brisket
Tweets
Looking for tweets for macguffin.
john “Dyson agrees with the prevailing view that there are rapidly rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by human activity. To the planet, he suggests, the rising carbon may well be a MacGuffin, a striking yet ultimately benign occurrence in what Dyson says is still ‘a relatively cool period in the earth’s history.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009 Mar 26, 2009
teradome "Two men are in a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers 'Well, then that's no McGuffin!' " -- Alfred Hitchcock Mar 16, 2008
arby Good description on TVTropes. Oct 24, 2007