Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An unexpected variation or reversal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a sudden and unexpected change or reversal of position, attitude, or action.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A sneaky, unexpected, or clever swap or exchange.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sudden unexpected switch

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of switch.]

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Examples

  • How would you react if your mate pulled a name switcheroo?

    Mother Talkers 2008

  • : 3) Sudden ‘All your heroes are belong to us’ switcheroo is sudden and nobody in my circles predicted that one, so speculation around the LCS is making for some animated discussions.

    Review: Blackest Night #5 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009

  • Now, some of the modern IDists might have not known about the word switcheroo, or at least have plausible deniability although I suspect that everyone on the long list of reviewers at the front of the 1989 Pandas, which includes many modern IDists, must have seen and commented on pre-ID drafts of Pandas, even if they don’t remember it.

    Yet another version of the origins of ID - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • The holiday name switcheroo follows centuries of American (not-exactly) Indians generally trying to help their "discoverers," including you-know-who, as well as to co-exist with subsequent settlers and their multiplying progeny (including mine), to convert to Christianity, and to sign treaties (if under duress) with the governments that treated them so shabbily.

    Alison Owings: Happy (or Not so Happy) Columbus Day to us All! Alison Owings 2011

  • The holiday name switcheroo follows centuries of American (not-exactly) Indians generally trying to help their "discoverers," including you-know-who, as well as to co-exist with subsequent settlers and their multiplying progeny (including mine), to convert to Christianity, and to sign treaties (if under duress) with the governments that treated them so shabbily.

    Alison Owings: Happy (or Not so Happy) Columbus Day to us All! Alison Owings 2011

  • The holiday name switcheroo follows centuries of American (not-exactly) Indians generally trying to help their "discoverers," including you-know-who, as well as to co-exist with subsequent settlers and their multiplying progeny (including mine), to convert to Christianity, and to sign treaties (if under duress) with the governments that treated them so shabbily.

    Alison Owings: Happy (or Not so Happy) Columbus Day to us All! Alison Owings 2011

  • In other words, the Supreme Court has already decided issue, unless a mere word switcheroo makes a legal difference.

    Barbara Forrest supplemental expert report - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • However, the switcheroo is an old bit of artifice dusted off from the 1990s, when it was successfully performed twice in Toronto courts - within a month of each other.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Curtis Rush 2011

  • Bloomberg's "switcheroo" at City Hall is underway.

    Morning Read: Paterson Cuts Deep, Bloomberg Shuffles Staff 2010

  • Bloomberg's "switcheroo" at City Hall is underway.

    Morning Read: Paterson Cuts Deep, Bloomberg Shuffles Staff 2010

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